Life insurers register 33 pc growth in new premium income at Rs 18,209 cr in Feb

India's life insurance industry witnessed a rise of 32.7 per cent in its collective new premium income at Rs 18,209.50 crore during February 2019, data from Irdai showed. The life insurers had collected first-time premium worth Rs 13,724.96 crore in same month a year ago. Insurance behemoth LIC, which has the largest market share of 66.26 per cent, registered a growth of 42.2 per cent in its new year premium at Rs 12,055.81 crore during the month, according to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) data.

The rest of the 23 market players in life insurance business (market share 33.74 per cent) collected premium of Rs 6,153.70 crore from new customers, witnessing a rise of 17.25 per cent from a year ago. Among the private sector insurers, SBI Life's new business premium grew 49 per cent to Rs 1,055.32 crore during the month, ICICI Prudential Life 33.1 per cent to Rs 1,039.14 crore and Aditya Birla Sun Life 21.6 per cent to Rs 222.26 crore.

Aegon Life new business premium jumped 59.3 per cent to Rs 48.26 crore, Max Life 23.7 per cent to Rs 529.77 crore, and Kotak Mahindra Life collected new premium of Rs 403.01 crore, witnessing 15.25 per cent growth from a year ago.

Of the players that registered dip in their new premium income were HDFC Life at Rs 1184.46 crore, down by 0.54 per cent from a year ago; DHFL Pramerica Life at Rs 65.01 crore, down 51.7 per cent; Bharti AXA Life at Rs 78.62 crore, down 98 per cent; and Bajaj Allianz Life at Rs 328.48 crore, down 11 per cent.

The cumulative new business premium of all the 24 life insurance firms during April-February 2018-19 rose by 7.60 per cent to Rs 1,77,213.57 crore.