Page 55 - Insurance Times Janaury 2021

5 Consumer takes the front seat - 3 Comparative Method and the 3 Best practices to Optimize your
Kuwait enters into a new era of Non Life Insurance Sector A few work-from-home experience
Insurance Regulations random thoughts Viviene Ly
Ram Mohan Reddy S H Gejji 4 Hope and hype is driving online
August 2020 October 2020 sale of Insurance Products
1 Liberalisation of Myanmar Insur- 1 Pandemic a boon for Health, Jagendra Kumar
ance Market: Opportunities for bane for Motor Insurance 5 Crisis Management; Building Cor-
Reinsurers Jagendra Kumar porate Resilience
Deepak Kumar
2 Be wise at 60 and above - Pension Charlie Matheson
2 Airlines need mercy of insurers and Annuity December 2020
Shivanand Pandit
Sreenivas Murthy 1 Health Insurance Landscape: Be-
3 An introduction to Superannuation 3 The big pivot: how COVID-19 has fore & Beyond 2020
Venkatesh Ganapathy
changed collaboration and inno- Vinay Verma
4 How the general insurance in-
vation 2 Performance of Crop Insurance
dustry could roar to life after
Tim Smith Schemes in India
lockdown is lifted
Jagendra Kumar 4 Changing Times for Insurance Arman Oza
Claims Organizations
5 Cyber security in the time of co- 3 Consumer Protection Act 2019:
rona virus Srivathsan Karanai Margan & Changing time to own product
John Coletti Suresh Aranala Krishnamurthy liability insurance?
September 2020 November 2020 Deepak Kumar
1 Global (Re) Insurances Impacted 1 New Product Development 4 Effectual Insurance underwriting
By Viral Pandemic Storm Events Needs in Motor Insurance in this decisive juncture of new
of COVID-19 Venkatesh Ganapathy normal situation
K. L. Naik 2 Insurance Law – Motor Vehicles Anabil Bhattacharya
2 Pandemics & Privacy: managing Act – Compensation Payment – 5 Child Insurance : A legacy to
cyber risks connected to COVID-19 Supreme Court leave behind
Danielle Roth Arkodeb Sinha Vijay H Kakhandki

Lives covered under group schemes fall sharply this fiscal
After a robust growth in recent years, lives covered under group schemes saw a sharp decline this fiscal for most
players, according to data put out by IRDAI. In the April-Oct period, the total number of lives covered under group
schemes for all life insurance players declined by 40.6 per cent to 6.8 crore lives from about 11.5 crore in the same
period last year.
While the largest life insurer LIC saw 8.8 per cent y-o-y decline, leading private insurers such as HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential
Life and Bajaj Allianz Life saw a steeper 50-60 per cent decline in the April-Oct period. Absence of lives covered under
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) this fiscal appears to have impacted LIC. On the other hand, for private
players muted credit life business on the back of slower loan disbursements has led to a sharp fall in lives covered
under group schemes.
Credit life policies are essentially group policies issued by life insurance companies to financial institutions. They ensure
that in case of death of the borrower, the amount of loan outstanding (or the chosen sum assured) is paid out by the
insurer. The premium is determined based on the original loan repayment schedule (or opted sum assured), duration
of the cover, and age of the borrower, among others. These policies are essentially single premium policies, and the
premium is usually taken upfront by the insurerat the time of availing the loan.
Pandemic-led disruption saw muted loan disbursements across lending institutions in the initial months of the current
fiscal, impacting the credit life business of insurance players. According to IRDAI data, the number of lives covered
under group schemes fell by 61 per cent y-o-y in the April-Oct period for HDFC Life. However, the private insurer is
witnessing a gradual recovery.

The Insurance Times, January 2021 55