Non-life insurers see 13.14% rise in gross premium underwritten in Apr-Dec

Non-life insurers have reported a 13.14 per cent rise in gross direct premiums underwritten for the April-December 2018 period over the same period last year, according to data released by the insurance regulator – Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India.

In absolute terms, the total premiums underwritten by the non-life insurers (which includes state owned  general insurers, private general insurers, specalised PSU insurers and standalone health insurers) stood at Rs 1.23 trillion in the April-December 2018 period as against Rs 1.08 trillion in April-December 2017 period.

While the private non-life insurers have reported 25.6 per cent growth in gross premium underwritten by them in the April-December period of 2018, the state-owned one’s have seen a meager 1.5 per cent growth. Also, two of the four state owned insurers have reported negative growth, namely – National Insurance and United India Insurance.

The other two state owned non-life insurers – New India Assurance and Oriental Insurance – have reported positive growth of 7.71 per cent and 13.61 per cent in the gross premium underwritten by them in the April-December 2018 respectively.

The total gross premiums underwritten by the private insurers are to the tune of Rs 59, 513.59 crore in April-December 2018 against Rs 47,382.33 crore in the same period in 2017. The state owned insurers have underwritten premiums to the tune of Rs 49, 659.29 crore as opposed to Rs 48,921.83 crore in 2017.

ICICI Lombard, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, HDFC Ergo and Tata AIG General Insurance are the top four private non-life insurers in terms of market share upto the month of December 2018 and have registered growth rates of 16.67 per cent, 14.54 per cent, 19.11 per cent and 43.29 per cent respectively in the April-December period of 2018.

The standalone health insurers, seven in total, saw a 41.23 per cent growth in the gross premiums underwritten in the April-December period of 2018 to Rs 7,314.47 crore from Rs 5,179.06 crore in the same period last year.

The specialized PSU insurers reported a 9.86 per cent decline in gross premiums underwritten by them to Rs 6,534.55 crore in April - December 2018 from Rs 7,249.32 crore in April-December 2017.