The new insurance policy issuance has decreased significantly by 41.6 per cent in one year to October 2024, according to the Life Insurance Council’s October 2024 report. Contrary to this, new business premium (NBP) collection increased by 13.16 per cent in October compared to the same month in the previous year. While the demand for insurance protection remained high for both individual and corporate customers, the reason behind the decline in policy issuance is mainly due to “current life insurance demand consolidation and concurrent shift towards products offering higher levels of insurance protection”.
Here are the key highlights from the report.
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New Business Premium Collection (NBP)
Annual Performance:
The new business premium grew year-over-year from Rs 26819.01 crore in October 2023 to Rs 30347.6 crore in October 2024
YTD Performance:
The NBP collection rose around 19 per cent year-to-date to Rs 2,19,561.64 crore compared to Rs 1,85,195.81 crore the previous year
Individual Policy Segment:
In the individual insurance segment, the single premiums grew 8.60 per cent to reach Rs 3,397.07 crore on an annual basis and non-single premiums surged 2.76 per cent to Rs 7453.5 crore in October 2024
On a year-to-date basis, the single and non-single premiums increased by 14 per cent and 18.23 per cent, respectively, indicating that more policies were bought in the non-single premium category
In insurance, a single premium policy is when a policyholder pays a single premium at the time of buying the policy. Non-single is when the premium is paid at regular intervals, which could be monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or annually
According to the Council report, the strong performance in the individual insurance segment is due to the increased focus of life insurers on enrolling first-time buyers for life insurance policies
Combining both single and non-single premiums, the collection in this segment grew around 17 per cent YTD and 4.5 per cent in October
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Group Policy Segment:
Group policy means insurance coverage to a group of people through a single policy. It is used in organizations and covers different risks, including life, health, accident, etc.
The data shows that single premiums under this segment grew around 16 per cent collecting monthly collection of Rs 18,258.37 crore in October 2024. The segment’s overall premium in October surged by 18.6 per cent
The new policy issuance in this segment expanded by 2.70 per cent over the year to October 2024
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New Policy Issuance
The new policy issuance declined from 12,01,214 policies in October 2024, compared to 20,56,928 policies issued in October 2023, indicating a decrease of 41.6 per cent
According to the data, 5,82,565 individual life insurance agents have been added by the life insurers marking a 2.64 per cent increase in the total number of agents. As insurance companies strive for higher penetration of insurance in remote and underserved areas, they are also leveraging digitisation besides adding agents.
