New business premiums for the life insurance industry witnessed a growth of around 15% in September, but the individual single premium category fell approximately 42%, data from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) show.
Individual annualised premium equivalent (APE) declined 3% year-on-year in September as compared to 11-27% y-o-y growth in April-August 2019, Kotak Institutional Equities said.
Market participants said fall in the individual single premiums was due to the volatile equity markets as most of the investors invest in single premium unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips). Data from Irdai show that in September, the life insurance industry had new business premiums of `20,056.70 crore, against `17,490.68 crore in September last year, a growth of 14.67%.
Premiums for individual single premium and individual non-single premium stood at `1,676.22 crore and `5,649.60 crore, respectively.
Manoj Jain, MD of Shriram Life Insurance, said, “One of the reasons for fall in premiums for individual single premiums is volatility in equity markets, because bulk of the money goes into Ulips. Due to the uncertain markets, investors might not have invested in the segment.”
In the last six months, Sensex lost around 1.4%, while BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices declined 10.3% and about 15%, respectively. In the first six months of the current financial year, the life insurance industry saw new business premiums at `1.25 lakh crore, compared to `93,079.03 crore in the previous financial year, a growth of 35.11%.