Premium Collections of Life Insurance Down by 2%

The life insurance industry reported 2% dip in premium collections to Rs 1,22,661 crore in the first half of this fiscal because of fall in new business.

According to the Life Insurance Council, the total premium collected by the life insurance industry stood at Rs 1,25,179 crore during April-September 2010-11. The fall in total premium is due to the drop in new business premium collection.

The total new business premium for the industry has decreased 21% year-on-year to Rs 49,046 crore from Rs 62,362 crore.

The dip in premium collections is basically because of the low sales of unit-linked products, especially individual pension segment, which has fallen drastically this year to 1.2% from an average of 26% for the earlier 2 years for the same period.

Voluntary contribution from retail investors under individual pension segment has dried up as evident from the data available.

The life insurance industry has added more than 5,400 direct employees and 26,000 new agents as compared to last quarter.

In view of lack luster performance of the insurance industry in the first half of this fiscal year, the outlook for the remaining 6 months appears to be better.

The council said that new products need to be introduced by companies at regular intervals to sustain the interest of the consumers.

Source: Medindia