Life insurers reported a 22.2% increase in first-year premium (FYP) to ₹31,001.17 crore in September, helped by market leader and IPO-bound LIC returning to growth after four months.
While LIC posted a year-on-year increase in FYP for the second time this fiscal after a robust opening in April, for life insurers collectively it was the first two consecutive months of growth this year, coming on the back of reports of an impending increase in premium.
For the six months ended September, the FYP of life insurers stood at ₹1,31,981.89 crore, a 5.82% increase from the ₹1,24,727.65 crore in the year-earlier period, according to the latest business statement released by IRDAI. An 11.55% increase in FYP last month to ₹18,520.21 crore helped LIC reduce the decline thus far this fiscal to 3.3% at ₹85,112.59 crore.
Private players continued to maintain their momentum, reporting a 42.4% increase in FYP for September to ₹12,480.96 crore.
Private firms consolidate
For the first half, the premium mobilised by private players was 27.7% higher at ₹46,869.30 crore. The market share of private players was 35.5%.
Emkay Global Financial Services said the September performance pointed to a long-term trend of a gradual shift of the retail life insurance market toward large private players having a strong brand. Overall, the trend of market share consolidation toward bigger private life insurers continued to play out last month, it added in a report.
