Life insurers' first-year premium up 28% in January

The new business premium of life insurance companies grew by 27.8% to Rs 13,138.1 crore in January, compared with the year-ago month.

The new business, or the first-year premium of life insurance companies, stood at Rs 10,283.89 crore in January 2016.

State-owned LIC, the country's largest life insurer, contributed Rs 8,724.59 crore or 66.4% to the total premium generated during the month, showed data from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai). LIC's new business premium stood at Rs 6,720.28 crore in January 2016.

Out of the total Rs 13,138.1 crore, other 23 private sector life insurance firms contributed Rs 4,413.50 crore as new premium income for the January month this year. They recorded a rise of 23.8% in the first-year premium against Rs 3,563.60 crore in January 2016.

Among private sector life insurers, SBI Life's new business rose by 62.7% to Rs 1,094.54 crore in January 2017, as against Rs 672.07 crore a year ago.

ICICI Prudential Life new business was at Rs 775.41 crore, up 25.3%; HDFC Standard Life Rs 733.58 crore, up 33.7% and that of Max Life Rs 235.48 crore, an increase of 2.3%.

Among others, Bajaj Allianz Life premium recorded Rs 305.99 crore (from Rs 265.60 crore); Reliance Nippon Life recorded Rs 85.90 crore (against Rs 79.92 crore); Tata AIA Life recorded Rs 105.51 crore (from Rs 67.66 crore) and Birla Sun Life recorded Rs 153.99 crore (Rs 125.89 crore in January 2016).

However, the total number of policies/schemes in January in terms of first year premium of life insurance companies came down to 23,40,560 from 23,60,809 a year ago.

There are 24 life insurers in the country, of which only one LIC, is state-owned.

The cumulative new business premium from all the insurers during April-January period of 2016-17 rose to Rs 1,29,555.09 crore against Rs 95,871.62 crore a year earlier.