Of 24 life insurers, only 19 post profits in FY16: IRDAI

Of the 24 life insurance companies operating in India, only 19 insurers remained profitable in 2015-16 with the sector's overall profits dipping by 2.57 per cent.

During 2015-16, the life insurance industry reported profit after tax at Rs 7,414.97 crore as against Rs 7,611.31 crore for 2014-15, said the annual report by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).

The life insurers which reported profit are: AvivaLife, Bajaj Allianz, Birla SunLife, Canara HSBC, DHFL Pramerica, EXIDE Life, HDFC Standard, ICICI Prudential, IDBI Federal, India First, Kotak Mahindra, Max Life, PNB MetLife, Sahara India, SBI Life, Shriram Life, Star Union, Tata AIA and LIC of India.

The other five companies are: Aegon Life Insurance Company Ltd, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance, Bharti Axa Life Insurance, Future Generali India Life and Reliance Nippon.

State-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) alone reported profit after tax at Rs 2,517.85 crore, an increase of 38.06 per cent over Rs 1,823.78 crore for 2014-15.

The report further said the total net profit of non-life insurance industry dropped to Rs 3,238 crore as against Rs 4,639 crore in 2014-15.

All the four public sector insurers reported net profit during the year 2015-16.

Quoting Swiss Re report, IRDAI said during 2015, the life insurance premium in India (inflation adjusted) increased by 7.8 per cent when global life insurance premium increased by 4 per cent.

The Indian non-life insurance sector witnessed a growth of 8.1 per cent (inflation adjusted) during 2015 whereas the growth in global non-life insurance premium was 3.6 per cent only.