General insurance business at pre-Covid levels in July

BENGALURU: The general insurance industry has posted yearover-year growth of 18% to Rs 17,011 crore in July, compared to the year-ago period. The industry has seen premiums of Rs 56,340 crore till July — a recovery to pre-Covid levels. This growth has been driven by fire, crop and health insurance.

Bajaj Allianz Insurance, which posted the highest growth of over Rs 1,000 crore this month at Rs 2,004 crore in premiums, did it on the back of the crop insurance business it underwrote under the PM Fasal Bima Yojana. Other companies in crop insurance, like Agriculture Insurance and SBI General too saw a premium growth of 60-70% in July.

New India (15% growth) and ICICI Lombard (5%) stayed out of the crop business and posted lower premium growth. Insurers that stayed out of crop insurance this year said they were looking at underwriting profits — and the claims experience was too high in crop to make it feasible.

The growth in health insurance due to the Covid-induced panic was better reflected in premiums of standalone health insurers like Star Health, ManipalCigna Health, Aditya Birla Health, which posted premium growth of 50-70%.

Source: The Times of India