How Birla Sun Life Insurance managed to buck a slowdown in the sector

By November 2018, the private life insurance sector's individual APE growth slowed down and in fact de-grew by 1% compared to around 15 per cent in the preceding three months

The life insurance industry is facing an unusual slowdown now as retail participation is dwindling since November, compared to the earlier months this year. 

While the entire sector grew 6 per cent on individual annualised premium equivalent (APE) basis, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance (ABSL) stood out as an outlier since it performed much better.

According to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irdai) and Life Insurance Council data, individual APE of ABSL between April and November 2018 was up 62 per cent to Rs 93.81 billion, whereas the average growth among private players stood at 11 per cent for the same period.  

While