SBI Life Insurance, which earns roughly half of its business from the bancassurance channel, has reduced its dependence on bank distribution by strengthening its agency and other channels as part of its strategy to diversify distribution and improve its product mix.
“The company has been focusing for the last three years in strengthening our agency channel. We have opened more than 100 branches in the last three years. During the quarter, the company added over 34,000 agents,” Amit Jhingran, MD & CEO of SBI Life Insurance said during the first-quarter earnings call.
Agency Push Reshapes
The strategy has reflected in the company’s first quarter business mix. SBI Life reported a 36% year-on-year growth in Annualised Premium Equivalent (APE) to ₹5,380 crore in the April-June quarter. The contribution of the bancassurance channel to total APE declined to 47% in Q1FY27 from 58% in the corresponding quarter last year, while the share of agency and other distribution channels increased to 53% from 42%. APE is the life insurance industry’s standard measure of new business sales.
On an individual APE basis, the bancassurance channel contributed ₹2,450 crore, registering a 10% year-on-year growth. In comparison, individual APE through the agency channel rose 20% to ₹1,310 crore, with agent productivity improving to ₹2 lakh.
Jhingran, however, said State Bank of India continued to remain the company’s key strength even as the agency channel gained momentum. The company has a distribution network of 3. 71 lakh trained insurance professionals, comprising agents, Corporate Insurance Facilitators and specified persons (SPs), across 1,241 branches.
“Going forward, a very healthy mix of contributions from Bancassurance as well as agency will drive the overall company’s growth,” he said.
The share of bancassurance has been steadily declining from 60.3% in FY23 to 49.8% of SBI Life’s total APE of ₹42,550 crore in FY26.
Q1 Financial Highlights
Meanwhile, the private life insurer reported a 22% year-on-year increase in net profit to ₹720 crore for the first quarter. Gross written premium rose 20% to ₹21,290 crore. New business premium increased 23% to ₹8,910 crore, while renewal premium grew 17% to ₹12,380 crore. Individual new business premium, which reflects fresh premium collected from individual policyholders, rose 14% to ₹5,610 crore.
The company’s product mix also witnessed a shift. The share of Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs) in total APE declined to 46% from 57% a year ago. On policy persistency, SBI Life’s 13th-month persistency ratio remained stable at 87.7%. However, its 61st-month persistency ratio declined to 58.4% from 63.6% in the year-ago period, indicating that fewer than six out of every 10 policyholders who started paying premiums continued with their policies after five years.
