Life insurers' new business premium growth drops 11.6% in February

LIC's weak performance drags overall premium growth of the segment

Life-insurance companies in February reported an 11.6 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) drop in new business premium (NBP) owing to relatively weak performance by state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), which reported a 22 per cent drop in premium.

 

The data from the Life Insurance Council shows the NBP of life-insurance 

 

companies was ₹29,985.5 crore in February as against ₹33,913.18 crore in the same month last year.

 

LIC’s premium dropped to ₹15,513.95 crore while private companies reported 3.24 per cent growth to ₹14,471.62 crore.

 

 

“Private life insurers have readjusted themselves to new surrender value norms. But, the individual non-single premiums of LIC have dropped and the number of policies sold has also reduced, hinting that the revised commission structures of agents are affecting the sale of policies and premiums,” an insurance-sector analyst said.

 

NBP is the premium collected by life insurers from new policies for a particular year. It is the sum of the first-year premium and single premium, reflecting the premium from new businesses.

 

Among large private players, the premium of the largest private life insurer, SBI Life, dropped 18 per cent.

 

Meanwhile, other private players posted healthy growth. HDFC Life’s NBP rose by 23.5 per cent, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance’s 5.3 per cent, and Bajaj Allianz Life’s 2.88 per cent. Axis Max Life Insurance’s premium slipped 5.9 per cent.

 

In April-February FY25, the premium of life insurers grew 5.71 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹3.35 trillion. LIC’s premium rose by 1.90 per cent to ₹1.90 trillion while private insurers clocked 11.11 per cent growth to ₹1.46 trillion. The number of policies sold by the industry fell 4.77 per cent Y-o-Y in this period to 22.6 million from the same period last year. The number of policies sold by LIC dropped 10.15 per cent to 14.67 million while private insurers’ policy sales rose 6.9 per cent Y-o-Y to 7.99 million.