Life Insurer's New Business Premiums Up 4% at Rs. 13,854 Crore in July

New business premiums of life insurance companies saw a four% rise to Rs. 13,854.44 crore in July 2016 as against Rs. 13,319.97 crore premium collected in the corresponding period last year. State-run Life Insurance Corporation's (LIC) new business premium was the highest at Rs. 10,737.92 crore, up 3% from Rs. 10,421 crore in July 2015, data collected by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority showed.

Sector regulator IRDAI's data comprises a total of 24 firms including LIC - the country's largest life insurance company. New business generated by the remaining 23 companies rose 7.5% year-on- year to Rs. 3,116.52 crore in July this year, against Rs. 2,898.97 crore a year ago, the data showed.Among private players, SBI Life registered the highest premium from new business at Rs. 676.54 crore, a jump of 36 per cent from Rs. 497.08 crore last year.

HDFC Standard Life new business was up 17% at Rs. 521.43 crore as against Rs. 445.54 crore a year ago, ICICI Prudential Life's new business was up 16.5% at Rs. 565.59 crore from Rs. 485.50 crore last year.Further, new business premiums of Max Life stood at Rs. 217.39 crore from Rs. 185.78 crore last year and Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life reported (new business premiums of) of Rs. 157.25 crore as against Rs. 128.34 crore July 2015.

During April-July period of current fiscal year, new business premium by all the 24 life insurers rose by 22.7% at Rs. 45,247 crore as against Rs. 36,888.11 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal year, the data added.