Private insurers have gone slow with their single premium policies during the first four months of the current financial year but largest insurer LIC?s total new business premium increased 23% compared with the same period last fiscal to R23,858 crore, riding on group single premium policies.

Latest Irda data show that the top 7-8 private insurers have brought down their shares in the individual single premium policies while a few like Bajaj Alianz, Max Life and Met Life have maintained last year?s level.

Group single premium for LIC increased 117% to R11,063 crore in April-July, 2012 period from R5,085 crore for the similar period in FY12. Group single premium for the entire private sector was R1,522 crore in the first four months of FY13.

?Jeevan Vriddhi and Jeevan Vaibhav have pushed our growth in single premium income. Moreover, Beema Bachat is also doing well,? said a senior LIC official on condition of anonymity. Beema Bachat is a single premium money-back policy.

?We have found that in an uncertain market it is better to go for single premium policies where investors do not have to bother about renewals while ruling out any risk of policy lapse,? added the LIC official.

Though, most of the top private insurers posted negative growth during the month barring ICICI Prudential, which registered 126% growth in first year premium to R678 crore for July 2012 against R301 crore in the same month previous year.

In the first four months of the current financial year, Reliance Life Insurance increased its group single premium to R17.48 crore from R15.60 crore in the same period last fiscal. Besides, Reliance Life has reduced its individual single premium contribution by almost 50% and is focusing more on individual regular premium.

“We believe long-term sustainable growth for the industry can come only by reaching out to more customers which is why our focus is clearly the individual business segment. Further, within individual business, we are focusing on regular premium business,? Reliance Life Insurance president and executive director Malay Ghosh said.

On other hand, individual single premium for LIC during April-July, 2012 period has come down by 16% to R3,376 crore from R4,019 crore during the same period the previous fiscal. Private insurers almost halved their individual single premium to R616 crore from last year?s level of R1,239 crore.

Earlier, Irda raised concerns over sale of single premium policies while insurers argued that the category was not as risky as the regulator made it out to be. LIC?s first year premium for July, 2012 jumped by more than 50% to R9,407 crore in July this year against R6,065 crore in the same month last year.

?We have reduced our single premium contribution to less than 5% of the individual new sales. And that is a conscious decision,? said Prashant Tripathy, chief financial officer of Max Life Insurance. ?Our strategy has been to engage investors in long-term relationships,? he said.

During the April-July period, single premium collection of Max Life Insurance was R14 crore against R29 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.