Life insurance industry sees 14.5% growth in April-September

New premium business of the life insurance industry has seen a 14.5 per cent growth for the April 1-September 30 period for 2015-16, backed by strong growth of the private life insurance industry. The industry collected Rs 56,286.40 crore for the first two quarters, compared with Rs 49,178.17 crore in same period in the previous financial year.

PREMIUMS GROW

• Private life insurers saw a higher growth in premiums, driven by individual retail as well as group segments. Their growth exceeded 28 per cent, leading to strong double-digit growth for the industry
   
• Similarly, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) also saw growth almost touching 10 per cent. The insurer had also launched its much awaited unit-linked insurance product in the second quarter, in August. Industry experts said this also added to their growth
   
• The last financial year was not a good year for the industry in terms of new premium collection since there were several products that were refiled with the regulator to comply with the new traditional product guidelines. Hence, a lot of popular products in the market had to be taken off the shelves and the number of products being approved was also slower, impacting large insurers such as LIC