LIC suffers a premium jolt in Apr-Nov

Thursday 08, January, 2009 KOLKATA: Tight liquidity situation prevailing in the market seems to have hit the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) more than private life insurers. During April-November 2008, the PSU suffered a 14% decline in both first premium income (FPI) and the number of policies (NoP) sold. In contrast, private players witnessed 31% growth in FPI and 27% growth in sales of NoP. According to figures released by the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (Irda), LIC lost 10% market share to private players in FPI and 8% in NoP sold during the same period. The life insurance segment, during the period, saw a dismal 1.44% rise in FPI, while NoP sold declined by about 3.6%. LIC’s market share of FPI declined to 55.6% as against 65.8% in the same period last year. “For LIC, the fall in FPI as well as NoP sold in April-November 2008 was largely due to the decline in individual single premium policies as well as individual non-single premium policies sold. However, private companies witnessed a 28% rise in first premium income from traditional products and a 12% fall in premium income from single-premium policies during the period year-on-year,” said an insurance analyst. In November, private players saw a 10% decline in FPI growth while LIC witnessed a fall of 4%. LIC, in fact, managed to improve its market share by a marginal 1.64% during the month. Also, LIC managed a 16% increase in the number of policies sold while private players witnessed a 14% rise.

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