Lic To Pare Rates On Assured Return Products

The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is slashing interest rates on all its assured return products in view of the dip in yields on government securities. Two pension plans of LIC -- Jeevan Dhara and Jeevan Aksha -- will be discontinued from December 24 in their present forms.

The new rates for these assured return products will be announced following approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), LIC managing director A Ramamurthy told Business Standard.

Similarly, the LIC product targeted at the working woman -- Jeevan Sneha -- and Jeevan Shree, a policy targeted at the high networth individual, are also slated for downward revision.

Yields on government paper, especially at the long end of the market, have fallen sharply since the beginning of the fiscal. The yield on the long dated 25-year paper dropped by more than three percentage points to 8.75 per cent as on today while the benchmark 10-year paper yield was pegged at 7.99 per cent. This has affected the return on the LIC