Life insurers post combined growth of 11% in FY2020

India's life insurance companies posted an 11.36% growth in aggregate premium income to INR48.26tn ($636.3bn) in the fiscal year ended 31 March 2020 (FY2020), data from the IRDAI show.

The 24 life insurance companies' combined premium income stood at INR43.33tn in FY2019, reported Press Trust of India citing the IRDAI data.

India's largest and the only state-owned life insurer LIC, posted a decline of 23% in premium income to INR8.32tn in FY2020. Its market share stood at 82.76% in FY2020.

Private sector players saw a 22.53% rise in their total premium income to INR39.94tn in FY2020. The combined market share of all private sector life insurers stood at 17.24% in FY2020.

However, LIC's first-year premium income soared by 25.2% to INR512.27bn in FY20200, despite the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted its most productive weeks of the year that each year are the last fortnight in March. Its private sector rivals collectively reported new business growth of 11.64%.

LIC's market share in terms of first-year premiums stood at 68.74% in FY2020, recording an increase of 2.50 percentage points.

Source: Asia Insurance Review