Growth of life ins cos indicate grassroot connect: Council

Despite uncertainty in the regulatory environment that shrouded unit-linked insurance policies (Ulips), life insurance companies have continued to produce numbers -- indicative of the strong connect with grassroot investors, an insurance industry body said.

According to data released by the Life Insurance Council today, new business premium for the period April-June 2010 increased by 76.76 per cent year-on-year from Rs 14,466-crore to Rs 25,571-crore this year.

New business premium for linked products increased by 101 per cent to Rs 13,941-crore from Rs 6,935-crore. New business non-linked premium increased by 54.42 per cent to Rs 11,630-crore from Rs 7,531-crore, it said.

Single-linked premiums showed a significant growth of over 220 per cent with premium collections going up to Rs 7,945-crore as against Rs 2,479-crore in the year-ago period. The premium collected for single non-linked business grew by 23.5 per cent to Rs 4,773-crore as against Rs 2,479-crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, it said.

Unit linked renewal premiums have grown significantly to Rs 55,492-crore from Rs 8,825-crore in the period FY07 to FY10, a CAGR of 58.35 per cent. For the period April-June 2010, the unit linked renewal premium of private life insurers has grown 12.40 per cent to Rs 7,945-crore as against Rs 7,047-crore in the year-ago period.