Here's how life insurance business panned out in July 2022

9 Aug 2022 , 03:15 PM

Normally, such business numbers are broken up based on nature of ownership (LIC versus private insurers) as well as company-wise. The IRDAI analysis also compares first year premiums and sum assured on a monthly basis and cumulative year-to-date basis. Here are some broad takeaways.

1. LIC dominates the life insurance market in July 2022 also , but there is a small change compared to June 2022 data. The market share of LIC in total premium income is up 250 bps at 68.57% MOM, while the share of private insurers has correspondingly fallen. The premium income for June 2022 was Rs39,079 crore overall, of which LIC accounted for Rs29,117 crore and private life insurers Rs9,962 crore. While overall premium pie has grown considerably in July 2022, the growth has been entirely captured by LIC.
2. Let us now turn to the mix of premiums collected in July 2022, LIC had a market share of 82.70% in group single premium and 96.59% in group non-single premium. However, in individual non-single premiums, private insurers had a market share of 62.69% and even in individual single premium, their market share was an impressive 43.98%.
3. However, the situation changes drastically if you look at sum assured. Here the private life insurers have an overall market share of 81.86%. That is due to private life insurers selling more of pure risk term covers where the ratio of sum assured to premium is higher. LIC, on the other hand, is largely focused on endowments, money-backs and ULIPs. However, LIC’s share of sum assured has gone up to 18.14% in July 2022.
4. Growth in premiums is where LIC scores brownie points in July 2022. The industry growth in premiums for July 2022 over July 2021 was a robust 91.24%. However, the private life insurers saw premium growth of just 18.54% while LIC saw premium growth of a hefty 142.02%. For LIC, July marks a positive turnaround over June.
5. LIC growth could look steep due to the low base; since July 2021 was a weak month in terms of premium collections. To normalize, we can consider first 4 months of FY23 ended July 2022. Overall insurance premium collections were up 54.12% yoy. However, private life insurers saw growth of 38.81% in the 4 months to July 2022 while the growth in premium collections of LIC was 62.32%. LIC has dominated the month of July 2022, in terms of growth in premiums and market share.

This could be encouraging news after the disappointing listing of LIC on the bourses, but we await the stock market reaction.

Our reading of life premium collections for July 2022

Here are premiums across life insurers for July 2022 and for the first 4 months of FY23.

Insurer Category	Jul 2021	Jul 2022	Growth %	Jul-21 YTD	Jul-22 YTD	Growth %	Share
Private Total	8403.79	9962.22	18.54	25528.37	35435.75	38.81	31.43
Individual Single Premium	1473.88	1536.35	4.24	4148.13	5130.61	23.68	43.98
Individual Non-Single Premium	4040.29	4269.58	5.68	11098.36	14650.18	32.00	62.69
Group Single Premium	2320.12	3321.97	43.18	8265.34	12643.68	52.97	17.30
Group Non-Single Premium	55.67	13.41	-75.92	89.89	52.42	-41.68	3.41
Group Yearly Renewable Premium	513.82	820.91	59.77	1926.65	2958.85	53.58	95.34
LIC of India	12030.93	29116.68	142.02	47631.62	77317.69	62.32	68.57
Individual Single Premium	2141.60	1903.02	-11.14	5497.08	6536.27	18.90	56.02
Individual Non-Single Premium	2280.91	2436.92	6.84	6937.00	8720.36	25.71	37.31
Group Single Premium	7313.42	24285.57	232.07	34477.36	60429.43	75.27	82.70
Group Non-Single Premium	176.70	435.71	146.58	507.33	1487.07	193.12	96.59
Group Yearly Renewable Premium	118.30	55.45	-53.12	212.85	144.56	-32.08	4.66
Grand Total	20434.72	39078.91	91.24	73159.98	112753.43	54.12	100.00
Individual Single Premium	3615.49	3439.37	-4.87	9645.21	11666.88	20.96	100.00
Individual Non-Single Premium	6321.20	6706.50	6.10	18035.35	23370.53	29.58	100.00
Group Single Premium	9633.54	27607.54	186.58	42742.70	73073.12	70.96	100.00
Group Non-Single Premium	232.38	449.12	93.27	597.22	1539.49	157.78	100.00
Group Yearly Renewable Premium	632.12	876.37	38.64	2139.50	3103.41	45.05	100.00

Data Source: IRDAI

While LIC showed strong growth traction in July 2022, it is still focussed on group policies, which constitute 85% of their overall premium flows. Even in this high growth period, LIC reported flat to negative growth in individual premium collections. However, LIC can take solace from the fact that even for the private insurers, the growth in individual policy premiums for July 2022 was in low single digits only.

What we read from the sum assured numbers for July 2022

Here is sum assured across life insurers for July 2022 and for the first 4 months of FY23.

Insurer Category	Jul 2021	Jul 2022	Growth %	Jul-21 YTD	Jul-22 YTD	Growth %	Share
Private Total	341593.68	435141.12	27.39	1391603.54	1627822.27	16.97	81.86
Individual Single Premium	1971.19	1586.68	-19.51	6087.20	5743.12	-5.65	53.88
Individual Non-Single Premium	108887.72	111297.19	2.21	375697.20	395331.49	5.23	70.29
Group Single Premium	79571.63	121921.99	53.22	328833.06	427411.01	29.98	99.92
Group Non-Single Premium	30878.85	18567.96	-39.87	119096.71	48816.30	-59.01	88.97
Group Yearly Renewable Premium	120284.29	181767.31	51.11	561889.36	750520.35	33.57	80.46
LIC of India	95443.60	154117.75	61.48	246065.00	360670.82	46.58	18.14
Individual Single Premium	1576.76	1474.51	-6.49	4023.02	4916.17	22.20	46.12
Individual Non-Single Premium	43263.80	50584.41	16.92	115433.54	167075.77	44.74	29.71
Group Single Premium	50.78	96.73	90.48	179.06	329.87	84.23	0.08
Group Non-Single Premium	1473.00	1198.04	-18.67	4690.47	6052.42	29.04	11.03
Group Yearly Renewable Premium	49079.25	100764.06	105.31	121738.91	182296.60	49.74	19.54
Grand Total	437037.28	589258.88	34.83	1637668.54	1988493.10	21.42	100.00
Individual Single Premium	3547.95	3061.18	-13.72	10110.22	10659.29	5.43	100.00
Individual Non-Single Premium	152151.53	161881.60	6.39	491130.74	562407.26	14.51	100.00
Group Single Premium	79622.42	122018.72	53.25	329012.12	427740.88	30.01	100.00
Group Non-Single Premium	32351.85	19766.00	-38.90	123787.19	54868.72	-55.67	100.00
Group Yearly Renewable Premium	169363.54	282531.37	66.82	683628.27	932816.95	36.45	100.00

Data Source: IRDAI

When it comes to sum assured, private insurers have an edge in terms of market share at 81.86%. However, compared to June 2022, LIC has shown a sharp improvement in sum assured market share, as sales of pure risk covers picked up. That is also evident in the growth in sum assured for LIC, which is nearly twice that of private insurers in July 2022.

Private life insurers; and their July 2022 show

Out of the 23 private life insurance players, the top 5 insurers viz. SBI Life, HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential Life, Bajaj Allianz Life and Max Life accounted for 71.06% of premium collections. This ratio has fallen over 100 bps over June 2022, showing reducing concentration. Among the larger players, Bajaj Allianz, Aditya Birla Sun Life and Kotak Life showed premium growth of more than 40% on a yoy basis. SBI Life, despite its high base, displayed growth of 29% in premium collections in the month of July 2022.

The private insurance space appears to be consolidating with big names like SBI Life, HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential Life, Max Life, Aditya Birla Life, Kotak Life and Tata AIA; taking almost the entire private life insurance market at the cost of smaller players. But the big story of July 2022 has been the sharp revival in performance of LIC.