New business of life insurers declined 8% in January to ₹30,825.17 cr. 

New business of life insurers declined more than 8% in January to ₹30,825.17 crore from ₹33,559.75 crore a year earlier, making it the third such month of downward trend consecutively for them.

Sequentially, however, it was an improvement as the insurers in December had reported new business premium of ₹30,218.71 crore. November was the first month this fiscal when they reported decline in the key performance matrix, 4.5% year on year to ₹25,306.56 crore.

Unlike in the previous two months when the new business premium of private players increased and LIC’s declined, the January numbers released by the Life Insurance Council showed the private insurers also reporting a decline, albeit marginal, at ₹14,532.50 crore (₹14,638.98 crore).

Market leader LIC’s new business declined nearly 14% to ₹16,292.67 crore (₹18,920.77 crore). Setting the backdrop for the performance were the new regulations pertaining to surrender value or the norms introducing lesser charges for policyholders closing the policies ahead of the scheduled maturity as well as GST Council seeking more time before taking a decision on a proposed reduction in the Goods and Services Tax rate of 18% on certain life and health insurance policies.

The Life Insurance Council said the new business premiums underwritten by the life insurers in the first ten months of fiscal, till January, was an increase of 7.78% year on year at ₹30,5912.09 crore (₹28,3833.52 crore). “This strong performance can be ascribed to the fact that life insurers are increasingly focusing on encouraging first-time life insurance buyers to buy life insurance solutions, contributing to the 12.07% growth in combined individual premium collections for the month of Jan and 14% growth on a YTD basis,” it said in a release.