Assets under management (AUM) of the life insurance industry went up by 15% from Rs.19.60 lakh crore in FY 2013-14 to Rs. 22.50 lakh crore in FY 2014-15, shows IRDAI annual report.
All three categories of life insurance business - traditional policies, pension and ULIPs have witnessed healthy growth last fiscal.
The AUM of life insurance policies which includes traditional policies like whole life, endowment and money back has reached close to Rs.15 lakh crore. The AUM of life insurance policies went up from Rs. 12.88 lakh crore to Rs.14.95 lakh crore, a growth of 16% in FY 2014-15.
Similarly, the AUM of pension and general annuity (including group policies) increased to Rs.3.90 lakh crore last fiscal from Rs.3.38 lakh crore in FY 2013-14.
Surprisingly, the AUM of ULIPs which saw a continuous decline since 2010 regained some traction last fiscal. Its AUM increased to Rs. 3.62 lakh crore in FY 2014-15 from Rs.3.3 lakh crore in FY 2013-14, a growth of 9%.
Though the industry has fared poor in terms of first year premium collection since it declined by 6%, the growth has come primarily due to improved persistency ratio. The National Sales Head of a large private life insurer said, “AUM is not only driven by new business premiums but also renewals – actually renewals plays a larger role in this AUM growth. Renewal premiums grew satisfactorily this year and would have contributed to this growth.”
Top ten life insurers in terms of AUM
|
Insurers |
AUM as on March 15 |
AUM as on March 14 |
Change |
|
LIC |
1786313 |
1574296 |
13% |
|
ICICI Prudential |
97876 |
79400 |
23% |
|
SBI |
70774 |
58195 |
22% |
|
HDFC Standard |
67002 |
50253 |
33% |
|
Bajaj Allianz |
43158 |
38613 |
12% |
|
Max Life |
30961 |
24633 |
26% |
|
Birla Sun Life |
30045 |
24677 |
22% |
|
Tata AIA |
19523 |
17405 |
12% |
|
Reliance |
15828 |
18284 |
-13% |
|
Kotak Mahindra |
15051 |
12004 |
25% |
|
Private total |
461210 |
383169 |
20% |
|
Total |
2247522 |
1957466 |
15% |
Source: IRDAI
In terms of AUM, LIC maintained its dominance by capturing 80% of market share in the life insurance industry. The AUM of state owned life insurance company recorded a growth of 13%, from Rs. 15.74 lakh crore in FY 2013-14 to Rs.17.86 lakh crore in FY 2014-15. LIC alone has contributed Rs. 78,508 crore to the industry’s new business premium kitty in FY 2014-15 compared to Rs. 34,820 crore of private insurers.
In terms of the percentage of growth, the AUM of private life insurers grew faster as compared to LIC. Private insurers have witnessed a healthy growth of 20% in AUM from Rs.3.83 lakh crore as on March 2014 to Rs.4.61 lakh crore as on March 2015.
Among the top ten private insurers, ICICI Prudential retained its top position with AUM of Rs.97,876 crore, a healthy growth of 23% while SBI Life stood at second position with AUM of Rs.70,774 crore (22% growth). HDFC Standard and Max Life Insurance recorded the highest growth of 33% and 26% respectively in their AUMs.
Barring Reliance, all other life insurers witnessed a growth of over 10% in their AUM last fiscal.