Life insurers registered a growth of 84.2% in first year premium to ₹17,939.62 crore for April, on account of good performance by the market leader, Life Insurance Corporation of India.
For LIC, the first-year premium rose 141.3% to ₹11,716.70 crore (₹4,856.76 crore), a development that is bound to bring joy to the behemoth ahead of the listing of its shares.
Private life insurers registered a 27.5% increase in total first year premium (FYP) to ₹6,222.92 crore, showed the new business statement for 24 insurers released by IRDAI. Of the 22 operating private firms, six reported a decline in FYP.
Given the stringent nationwide lockdown in April 2020 and the impact of the COVID-19 delta wave in April last year, the three-year compound annual growth rate would present a truer picture of expansion, Emkay Global said in a research report. Based on a three-year CAGR, private life insurers provided an increase in RWRP (retail weighted premium received) of 18% as compared to 5% for LIC.
After the favorable base effect ends, year-on-year growth will begin to normalize from the second quarter of this fiscal. Additionally, April is a relatively short month for life insurers, so extrapolating the numbers for the month to the full year would not be correct, the report noted.