Life insurers’ new biz premium up 2.5% at Rs 19699cr as of Jun

NEW DELHI, Aug 17:  The first year (or new business) premium of life insurance companies increased by a marginal 2.5 per cent from a year ago to Rs 19,699.28 crore as of June 30, 2014.
According to data from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), the largest life insurer state-run LIC contributed over 71 per cent share to the total new business premium for the period ended June at Rs 14,015.92 crore.
The private insurers collected premium of Rs 5,683.36 crore as of June, 2014.
Among private life insurance companies, HDFC Standard collected premium of Rs 810.40 crore (up 38.6 per cent year on year) as of June, 2014.
ICICI Prudential Rs 782.21 crore (up 38.4 per cent) and SBI Life collected Rs 732.81 crore (up 2.2 per cent) as first year premium.
Of the others in private sector, Reliance Life had first year business premium of Rs 553.66 (up 7.8 per cent) as of June 2014, Bajaj Allianz Rs 391.93 crore (down 10.5 per cent), Max Life Rs 465.69 crore (up 21.6 per cent) and Birla Sunlife Rs 204 crore (down 47 per cent).
There are a total of 24 life insurers in the country.
However, the total number of policies or schemes for the period up to June for the first year premium for the life insurance companies came down to 38,19,547 from 61,78,231 a year ago. (PTI)