New business premiums of life insurance companies in India continued to decline in February, marking the fourth consecutive month of decline since the new surrender value guidelines came into effect in October 2024. The data from the Life Insurance Council showed that new business premium (NBP) stood at Rs 29,985.58 crore, a 12% year-on-year decline from Rs 33,913.18 crore in the same period last year. The decline was led by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s largest life insurer, which saw its monthly premium decline 22% to Rs 15,513.95 crore.
LIC’s CEO, Siddhartha Mohanty, acknowledged that the new surrender value norms had impacted premium collections, and while collections were expected to improve in the fourth quarter, the decline worsened in February with a 14% year-on-year decline in January. To mitigate the impact, life insurers have been adopting measures such as reducing first-year commissions on new policies and clawing back agent commissions if policies are surrendered within the first two years.
In contrast, private life insurance companies witnessed a modest 3% year-on-year growth in NBP to Rs 14,471.62 crore. HDFC Life Insurance saw a 24% rise in NBP to Rs 3,213.76 crore, while SBI Life Insurance recorded an 18% decline to Rs 2,174.53 crore. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance grew 5% to Rs 1,857.05 crore, and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance reported a 3% increase to Rs 1,080.33 crore. The industry sold 1.9 million policies during the month, down from 2.2 million in the same period last year.