The nationwide lockdown has affected recruitment of new agents in the insurance industry.
The latest data from Life Insurance Council (LIC) shows that the life insurance industry has added 1904 new agents in April 2020. In FY 2019-20, the life insurance industry had added 7500 new agents each month on an average.
This is largely due to the temporarily suspension of examination due to lockdown.
Although all the exam centres were closed in April, this addition of agents can be a part of lag from March, says Vighnesh Shahane CEO and MD, IDBI Federal Life Insurance. He believes that the number of new agents will go up sharply after reopening of exam centres as many individuals have completed their mandatory training and are waiting to clear their certification exam.
Of the 1904 agents joining the life insurance industry, LIC has recruited 1824 agents while the private players have added the balance 80 agents in April.
Last year, the Rs.40 lakh crore life insurance industry added close to 90,000 agents in just one year.
Currently, agents dominate life insurance sales for individual investors. Individual agents sold 62% of the new life insurance policies in FY 2018-19. While the state owned LIC receives 96% of its new business through the agency channel, the private players have less dependence on them, with just 26% of their new business coming through the agency channel.