The life insurance industry has registered a healthy growth of 26% in its new business premium collection in FY 2016-17. The sector’s 24 players mopped up Rs1.75 lakh crore in FY 2016-17 against Rs1.38 lakh crore the previous fiscal, shows the latest Life Insurance Council data.
The country’s largest life insurer, state-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), alone recorded 27% growth, contributing Rs1.24 lakh crore to the total industry premium. This amounts to more than 70% of the overall industry collection from new business premium. The growth was largely on account of increase in sale of individual single premium policies. This segment saw a whopping 84% growth and received an inflow of over Rs23,500 crore. Experts attribute this spurt in growth to the additional disposable income available to individuals after demonetisation.
Private life insurers recorded a sizeable growth of 24% in their new business premium collection. The 23 private players collected close to Rs50,600 crore in FY 2016-17 as compared to Rs41,000 crore in FY 2015-16.
SBI Life collected the highest first-year premium of Rs10,145 crore among private life insurers, overtaking HDFC Life (Rs8,696 crore) and ICICI Prudential (Rs7,863 crore).
In terms of number of policies, though, the industry has registered a decline of 1.06%, down from 2.67 crore in FY 2015-16 to 2.64 crore in FY 2016-17.