LIC push lifts life insurers' new business premiums in April, shows data

After a muted performance in 2024–25 (FY25), life insurance companies reported an 8.43 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in new business premiums (NBP) in April, largely supported by state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC’s) premium growth during the period.

 

According to Life Insurance Council data, the life insurance industry’s NBP in April stood at ₹21,965.73 crore.

 

While LIC’s NBP rose 9.9 per cent Y-o-Y during this period to ₹13,610 crore, private-sector life insurers reported just 6 per cent Y-o-Y growth in NBP to ₹8,355 crore.

 

April is typically a slow month for life insurance companies, as a significant number of policies are sold in March to take advantage of tax-saving benefits before the financial year ends.

 

NBP is the premium acquired from new policies for a particular year.

 

LIC’s growth in premium was supported by group single premium, which saw nearly 15 per cent Y-o-Y growth.

 

Private players, on the other hand, reported low single-digit growth in all categories, except group yearly renewable premiums.

 

Among the large private-sector insurers, SBI Life Insurance reported flat growth in NBP to ₹1,693.7 crore, while HDFC Life’s NBP grew 23.4 per cent to ₹1,943.22 crore, and ICICI Prudential Life’s premium rose 9.8 per cent to ₹1,032.05 crore.

 

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance’s premium grew 4.4 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹719.37 crore, and Axis Max Life Insurance’s premium grew 17.11 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹592.11 crore.

 

“The muted growth in April was largely attributed to the base effect. However, they also noted that the sector’s overall growth has been slowing since the second half of FY25, driven by changes in surrender value norms. Also, market volatility has dampened the demand for unit-linked insurance policies, which had been highly popular when markets were hitting all-time highs in previous years,” said the chief executive officer of a private-sector life insurer.

 

Moreover, analysts suggested that in the past couple of years, growth in April has generally been weak. This year, the industry is seeing normalisation following the surrender value norms and a high base effect.

 

That said, the number of policies issued by life insurers dropped 13.24 per cent Y-o-Y to 1.11 million, with LIC’s new policies declining 15.26 per cent Y-o-Y to 725,000 and private life insurance policies slipping 9.51 per cent Y-o-Y to 420,000.

 

In FY25, NBP of life insurers grew 5.13 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹3.97 trillion. LIC’s NBP grew just 1.86 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹2.27 trillion during this period, while premiums of private-sector life insurance companies expanded 9.8 per cent to ₹1.71 trillion.

 

In 2023–24, NBP of life insurance companies grew just 2 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹3.77 trillion.