Insurers to report big hit for March quarter

Mumbai: From a profitability standpoint, last fiscal’s fourth-quarter could be a near-washout for life insurers, which together saw significant declines in all financial KPIs in the month of March – sum assured, first-year premiums, policies issued, and lives covered.

The overall industry – with 24 players – saw 32.2% year-on-year (YoY) decrease in new premium collection to ₹25,409.30 crore in the month whereas number of policies underwritten and the number of lives covered in the month reduced by 66% and 41%, respectively, latest data released by regulator Irdai showed.

However, for FY20, the sector saw a 20.6% YoY increase in first-year premiums at ₹2.58 lakh crore. While the country’s largest insurer, Life Insurance Corp (LIC), saw a 25.2% growth in new premium to ₹1.78 lakh crore for the month of March, the IPO-bound insurer saw a 31.1% decline in first-year premiums.


LIC ended FY20 with a 68% market share of first-year premiums.

Among the listed insurers, HDFC Life Insurance posted a 16.2% YoY rise in new premiums for the full year to ₹17,396.25 crore. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance posted a 20.5% YoY rise in new premiums to ₹12,348.11 crore and SBI Life Insurance posted a 20.3% YoY rise in premiums to ₹16,598.82 crore.