Hyderabad:
Led by state owned Life Insurance Corporation(LIC), the life insurance industry, amidst Covid-19 Pandemic disruptions,has staged a remarkable comeback as the new premium income of the industry has surged by 32 per cent year-on-year(Y-O-Y) to Rs 22,776.03 crore in the month of October.
However the industry, at 2086989, is still having a negative growth of 6.70 per cent in terms of number of total policies sold during the month.Also industry's sum assured, out of the new policies, has plunged 28 per cent y-o-y to Rs 111278.71 crore in the reporting month, according to the industry figures released by the regulator IRDAI.
Majorly bolstered by Individual Single Premium and Group Single Premium, LIC, with a market share of 70 per cent, itself has grown its new premium income by 36 per cent y-o-y to Rs 15548.06 in the month of October while the private sector led by HDFC Life has expanded by 23.56 per cent y-o-y to Rs 7227.96 crore during this period.
But in the number of policies sold,at 1534473, the life insurance behemoth has seen a degrowth by 12 per cent during the month while the private sector, at, 552516 policies,has witnessed a growth of 13.57 per cent, during the month.
Aided by Individual Non-Single Premium and Group Single Premium, HDFC Life has seen its new premium income rising by 53 per cent y-o-y to Rs 1658 rore in October.
SBI Life's new premium income has gone up by almost 12 per cent y-o-y to Rs 1591 in October.
None of the other players, out of 24 players, including ICICI Pru Life and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance have crossed Rs 1000 crore of new business income in October,
Prashant Tripathy, MD & CEO, Max Life Insurance said,“Max Life has outperformed the private industry in October by registering the highest growth in the industry at 49 per cent y-o-y in terms of Individual Adjusted FYP. This impressive growth has been possible with robust performance in the bancassurance and the e-commerce channel. The steady uptake of protection products and the customers’ growing focus towards securing the future of their loved ones during uncertain times has acted as a catalyst for Max Life’s impressive performance in the month.”
Yusuf Pachmariwala, executive vice president, operations, Tata AIA Life Insurance.said,“While the current recovery rate in the country looks very encouraging, industry wide we did see an increase in claims in the last two months. We on our part are ensuring that regardless of the reason, the claims are settled expeditiously. Around two months back, we introduced hassle-free & speedy claims process – Express Claim & Easy Claim process. The Express Claims is a pioneering initiative that enables beneficiaries to receive their pay-outs as soon as within four hours of registering the claim whereas Tata AIA’s Easy Claim is a home-collection & delivery that enables beneficiaries to get the claims assessed and collected from the comfort of their homes.''