Pvt Insurers Get Just 0.02% Share In 00-01

In their first year of operation, private life insurers have managed to grab a mere 0.02 per cent of the Rs 36,070.4 crore market with a premium income of Rs 7.12 crore.

Private sector general insurance companies fared marginally better with gross direct premium income (GDPI) worth Rs 7.13 crore of the total market of Rs 10,087.03 crore, accounting for 0.07 per cent share during 2000-01.

According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority's maiden annual report, by the end of 2000-01, the four private life insurers _ Birla Sun Life, HDFC Standard Life, ICICI Prudential and Max New York Life _ which had commenced business had managed a cumulative sum assured of Rs 149.03 crore at the end of the fiscal, against LIC's Rs 14,099.66 crore premium during the year.

 

Among the private life insurance companies, ICICI Prudential Life was at the top of the list with a premium income of Rs 5.97 crore, at the end of March 2001, followed by HDFC Standard Life (Rs 67.19 lakh), Birla Sun Life (Rs 31.90 lakh) and Max New York Life (Rs 15.98 lakh).

The four companies issued about 10,000 insurance policies during the year with ICICI Prudential again at the top of the list with around 6,000 policies followed by Max New York Life with 20,000 risk covers and Birla Sun Life and HDFC Standard Life underwriting a 1,000 policies each. LIC on its part issued two crore risk covers during the year, including 3.45 lakh new annuity policies.

In the general insurers insurance sweepstakes, among the four private players that had commenced operations by the end of March 2001, Iffco Tokio Marine was at the top with GDPI of Rs 5.83 crore, followed by Reliance General (Rs 1.07 crore). Royal Sundaram Alliance (Rs 23.56 lakh) and Tata AIG General Insurance.

In contrast, the four state-owned general insurers had GDPI of Rs 10,079.89 crore with New India Assurance at the top of the list (Rs 3,041.77 crore) followed by United India Insurance (Rs 2,441.09 crore) and Oriental Insurance (Rs 2,199.67 crore) with National Insurance (Rs 2,441.09 crore) at the bottom of the list. General Insurance Corporation (GIC), which was also did direct underwriting for a sizable part of the year, had GDPI of Rs 280.08 crore.

Thanks to income from investment, the five PSU general insurers managed to post profits as they sustained underwriting losses with New India (Rs (446.04 crore underwriting losses) at the top of the list followed by United India (Rs 420.33 crore) and GIC (Rs 334.89 crore).

All the five companies, however, showed profits at the end of the 2000-01 fiscal with GIC leading the pack with net profits of Rs 242.29 crore, followed by New India which had net profits of Rs 173.54 crore.