Page 13 - Insurance Times July 2016
P. 13
Life Insurers' New Pre- Banks selling life products can be a boost for insurance
mium up 27% in May sector
The new premium collected by life Insurers, particularly those promoted likely to get into similar tie-ups with
insurers rose by non-banking companies, are likely leading banks.
by 26.6 per to see a major boost in insurance dis-
cent in May to tribution, as banks can now start sell- Nilesh Sathe, Member-Life at the In-
Rs 10,610.10 ing products of multiple insurers. surance Regulatory and Development
crore. The in- Authority of India (IRDAI), said 25-30
surers had col- Future Generali Life, which did not banks will start distributing products of
have a bancassurance part-
lected new premium of Rs 8,382.67 ner, announced a partner- more than one insurer.
crore in the same month of 2015. ship with Saraswat Bank,
which has a tie-up with At present, most major
Of all the 24 life insurers, private sec- HDFC Life for distribution of public and private sector
tor companies witnessed an in- life insurance products. banks, such as State Bank
crease of 25.8 per cent in new pre- of India, Union Bank of In-
mium collection at Rs 3,248.35 crore Industry experts say that other non- dia, Bank of Baroda,
for the month of May. It was at Rs bank-promoted insurers, such as Birla Canara Bank, Bank of India, Punjab
2,580.89 crore a year ago, data Sun Life, Reliance Life, Bajaj Allianz, National Bank, Andhra Bank, ICICI
from insurance regulator IRDAI Aegon Life and Shriram Life, are also Bank and IDBI Bank, have promoted in-
showed. surance companies.
However, for Life Insurance Corpora- Insurance arms of ICICI and HDFC seek to
tion of India (LIC), the collection from raise $1 billion
new premium rose to Rs 7,361.75
crore in May, up 27 per cent from Two of India's leading private-sector insurers are looking to
the year-ago period. Its new busi- raise over $1 billion this financial year in the sector's first ini-
ness premium stood at Rs 5,801.78 tial public offerings (IPOs), as insurance companies' rush to take
crore in the same month of 2015. advantage of a change in ownership rules.
Among the top private sector per-
formers, SBI Life, HDFC Standard ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and HDFC Standard Life Insurance will likely be
Life, Exide Life, Kotak Mahindra Old followed by SBI Life Insurance in reacting to a relaxation in foreign investment
Mutual Life showed healthy rise in regulation last year that made share sales more feasible, in a country where
their new business premium. most life insurers are part-foreign owned.
Their new collection rose to Rs "The business potential for insurance companies is large. But too many players
842.08 crore, up 156 per cent (from are in the market, competition is going up," said New Delhi-based R.K. Gupta,
Rs 328.62 crore year ago); Rs Managing Director at Taurus Asset Management.
502.59 crore, up 38.3 per cent; Rs
127.46 crore, up 256 per cent and SBI Life launches HNI focused ULIP - 'Smart Privilege'
Rs 197.66 crore, up 41.4 per cent,
respectively. SBI Life Insurance has launched higher income individual
focused market-linked life insurance plan - Smart Privilege.
"We have effectively activated the
various channels of our premium col- The product provides both life insurance as well as the op-
lection. Of the four-five such chan- portunity to increase wealth through investments in eight
nels, individual agents and bank select funds (in any combination of customers choice), with
channels have been activated the the flexibility of fund switching and premium redirections, unlimited number of
most. Earlier the company was tap- times, throughout the term of the plan, SBI Life said in a release.
ping potential from only a limited
bank branches", Arijit Basu, MD & The minimum entry age is 8 years for regular or limited premium policies and
CEO SBI Life Insurance said. 13 years for single premium policies and the maximum age is 55 years. The policy
term is 10 to 30 years for regular or limited premium policies and 5 to 30 years
for single premium policies.
The premium paying frequency options are single, yearly, half yearly, quarterly
and monthly.
The Insurance Times, July 2016 13
