The life insurance industry in India has been making significant strides forward by expanding access to insurance and making an effort to reach out to areas and segments of the country’s population that were previously underserved when it comes to their insurance needs. New business premiums (NBPs) underwritten by Indian life insurers have achieved a robust growth of 15.15 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in the month of May 2024, with YTD figures recording a 31.2 per cent growth over the same period last year, as per a report released by Life Insurance Council.
The report further highlights that the new business premiums expanded from Rs 23,448 crore in May 2023 to Rs 27,034 crore in May 2024, with YTD collections growing even more from Rs 36,043 crore to Rs 47,293 crore this year. In addition to this, the industry also saw individual single premiums growing as it increased 18.3 per cent Y-o-Y to around Rs 3,351 crore for May 2024. However, YTD growth stood at 21.49 per cent.
In fact, new policy issuances too increased by 12.45 per cent Y-o-Y in May 2024, resulting in the addition of new 18,68,096 policies vis-à-vis 16,61,324 policies in the year ago period. On the other hand, individual non-single premiums came in at Rs 6,916 crore and grew by 18.7 per cent in May 2024, even as YTD collections settled at 20.14 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year.
It is anticipated that the strong performance can be ascribed to the fact that life insurers are increasingly focusing on encouraging first-time life insurance buyers to buy essential life insurance solutions, contributing to the 18.58 per cent growth in combined individual premium collections for the month of May 2024 and 20.6 per cent growth on a YTD basis.
Meanwhile, in the Group policy segment, single premiums grew by 16.7 per cent with monthly collections coming in at Rs 15,976 crore, while the Group policy category witnessed a 13.15 per cent growth in premiums collected in May 2024. The new policy issuances expanded by 21.15 per cent on a Y-o-Y basis.
Furthermore, life insurers added over 1,30,000 individual life insurance agents, however there is an overall 0.2 per cent drop in cumulative agent count due to attrition.