The business figures have slowly started improving for this sector
Life insurance companies which saw a decline in premium last year are now reporting an increase in group single premium. The players expect the individual premium numbers to also improve as it has been increasing on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
According to IRDA data, in the group single premium segment insurers were able to collect Rs 14235.67 crore upto August 2011 compared to a premium of Rs 8128.17 crore collected last year during the same period.
“As I had mentioned earlier, life insurance industry is slowly growing on a month-on-month basis because till last year, we were selling a different basket of products and now we are exposed to another basket of products. We hope that in next two quarters, we would generate decent premium under the individual category besides the group business,” said Malay Ghosh, Executive Director and President, Reliance Life Insurance.
SBI Life took a lead in the group single premium and reported a whopping premium of Rs 1019.41 crore upto August 2011 compared to Rs 887.55 crore last year. It was followed by ICICI Prudential Life which reported Rs 241.41 crore upto August 2011 compared to Rs 86.93 crore last year. HDFC Standard is in the third position after reporting a premium collection of Rs 163.54 crore upto August 2011 compared to Rs 3.23 crore last year.