The period between April to June 2011-12 looks very grim for life insurance companies in India, including the country’s largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).
Private Insurance companies’ premium collections have declined by 27.1% while LIC has registered a greater downfall with a 28.8% decline over previous year.
Among the private players, Reliance Life has taken the biggest hit with a 57% decline. Reliance Life Insurance Company collected only Rs 262 crore this Q1 as compared to Rs 605 crore for the same period in the previous year.
Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company’s collections have also been slashed by 51%, followed by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance with a 42% decline.
Only 4 private insurance companies have shown a positive growth. These companies are Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance, DLF Pramerica Life Insurance, India First Life Insurance and Aegon Religare Life Insurance. Star Union Dai-ichi Life collected Rs 108 crore for the period April to June 2011-12, with a 45% growth over Rs 74 crores collected during the same period last year.
Last year IRDA came up with stringent guidelines on Unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs) which constituted majorly to the income of all life insurance companies. This resulted in companies withdrawing their existing Ulips to release new Ulips that were compliant with the new guidelines. This could be one of the reasons for the steep dip in premium collections of these life insurance companies.
Non-life insurance companies on the other hand have registered a positive growth in Q1, with the 4 PSU’s showing a growth of almost 19% while the private counterparts registering a 27% growth.
