LIC leads the NBP growth narrative in February 2024
The Life Insurance Council has just released the full month data stack in terms of new business premium (NBP) collections for February 2024. Apart from the NBP data, the Life Insurance Council has also released data on the number of policies sold by individual insurance companies and also at a macro level. In addition to monthly numbers and the yoy comparison, the data also provides cumulative performance of the private insurers and the LIC for the first 11 months of FY24 upto the end of February 2024. While the monthly data captures the high frequency story of insurance business flows, the cumulative data captures the secular trend. For the latest month to February 2024, it is LIC that has led the growth in new business premiums (NBP), largely led by aggressive selling by its feet-on-street force.
There appear to be a clear recovery story scripted by LIC. In the first 8 months of FY24 (up to November 2023), the new business premiums gravitated towards the private insurers. However, since December 2023, the trend appears to have shifted back in favour of LIC and that trend has only got accentuated in the month of February 2024. If you compare the first 11 months of FY24 with the first 11 months of FY23, the LIC share of new business premiums (NBP) has stayed robust at above 58.6%, thanks to the turnaround since December 2023. However, it is still sharply lower from the year ago level of 63.8% of NBP which LIC had managed to corner. A clearer high frequency picture emerges if you look at the NBP (new business premium) figure for February 2024 at 58.67%, higher than 56.38% in January 2024 and sharply higher than the corresponding February 2023 NBP share for LIC of a mere 51.99%. FY24 will go down as the year when LIC scripted a smart recovery in the second half of the year, from December 2023 onwards.
New Business Premium (NBP) Growth for February 2024
The table below captures the performance of LIC, private insurers and the overall insurance sector for the month of February 2024 in terms of first year premiums and the yoy growth in premiums over February 2023. Premiums flows, here, refer to first year premiums only.
PARTICULARS | Premium Flows (Feb-2024) |
Premium Flows (Feb-2023) |
Growth in NBP YOY (%) |
Individual Single Premium | 3,971.32 | 3,439.37 | 15.47% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 9,383.16 | 7,938.30 | 18.20% |
Group Single Premium | 19,320.28 | 10,508.51 | 83.85% |
Group Non Single Premium | 276.63 | 361.32 | -23.44% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 961.80 | 600.14 | 60.26% |
Grand Total Premium Flows | 33,913.18 | 22,847.65 | 48.43% |
PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES | |||
Individual Single Premium | 1,889.45 | 1,533.82 | 23.19% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 6,574.59 | 5,465.19 | 20.30% |
Group Single Premium | 4,658.96 | 3,416.35 | 36.37% |
Group Non Single Premium | 22.96 | 19.22 | 19.46% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 871.21 | 533.57 | 63.28% |
Private Insurer Premium Flows | 14,017.17 | 10,968.16 | 27.80% |
LIC OF INDIA | |||
Individual Single Premium | 2,081.86 | 1,905.56 | 9.25% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 2,808.58 | 2,473.10 | 13.57% |
Group Single Premium | 14,661.31 | 7,092.17 | 106.73% |
Group Non Single Premium | 253.67 | 342.10 | -25.85% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 90.59 | 66.56 | 36.10% |
LIC Premium Flows | 19,896.01 | 11,879.49 | 67.48% |
Data Source: Life Insurance Council (Premium figures are ₹ in Crore)
Here are some quick takeaways from the data points on insurance business for January 2024 in terms of the first year premium collections by insurance companies.
There has been some consolation for LIC since December 2023, in terms of NBP share, although the ball is still in LIC’s court to consolidate on these gains, going ahead.
First year Premium Growth for FY24 (Apr-23 to Feb-24)
The table below captures the performance of LIC, private insurers and the overall insurance sector for the first 11 months of FY24 (April 2023 to February 2024), in terms of cumulative new business premium (NBP). The comparison is with the comparable 11 months for FY23.
PARTICULARS | Premium Flows (FY24) |
Premium Flows (FY23) |
Growth in NBP YOY (%) |
Individual Single Premium | 38,753.96 | 38,539.33 | 0.56% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 87,443.01 | 79,736.08 | 9.67% |
Group Single Premium | 1,78,131.98 | 1,86,887.35 | -4.68% |
Group Non Single Premium | 3,949.09 | 4,855.53 | -18.67% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 9,468.68 | 8,443.61 | 12.14% |
Grand Total Premium Flows | 3,17,746.71 | 3,18,461.90 | -0.22% |
PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES | |||
Individual Single Premium | 17,749.75 | 17,193.67 | 3.23% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 59,898.98 | 52,798.61 | 13.45% |
Group Single Premium | 45,853.52 | 37,401.53 | 22.60% |
Group Non Single Premium | 130.76 | 135.01 | -3.15% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 7,891.33 | 7,750.14 | 1.82% |
Private Insurer Premium Flows | 1,31,524.34 | 1,15,278.96 | 14.09% |
LIC OF INDIA | |||
Individual Single Premium | 21,004.21 | 21,345.65 | -1.60% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 27,544.03 | 26,937.48 | 2.25% |
Group Single Premium | 1,32,278.47 | 1,49,485.82 | -11.51% |
Group Non Single Premium | 3,818.32 | 4,720.52 | -19.11% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 1,577.35 | 693.47 | 127.46% |
LIC Premium Flows | 1,86,222.37 | 2,03,182.93 | -8.35% |
Data Source: Life Insurance Council (Premium figures are ₹ in Crore and for period Apr-23 to Feb-24)
Here are some quick takeaways from the data points on insurance for FY24 (Apr-Jan) in terms of cumulative first year premium collections by insurance companies.
Growth in Number of Policies for February 2024
The table below captures the performance of LIC, private insurers and the overall insurance sector for the month of February 2024 in terms of growth in the number of policies. The comparison is, once again, between February 2024 and February 2023.
PARTICULARS | No. of Policies (Feb-2024) |
No. of Policies (Feb-2023) |
Growth in Policies YOY (%) |
Individual Single Premium | 1,06,618 | 96,041 | 11.01% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 23,85,481 | 21,85,963 | 9.13% |
Group Single Premium | 172 | 126 | 36.51% |
Group Non Single Premium | 439 | 483 | -9.11% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 3,109 | 2,916 | 6.62% |
Grand Total No. of Policies | 24,95,819 | 22,85,529 | 9.20% |
PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES | |||
Individual Single Premium | 32,646 | 25,475 | 28.15% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 7,43,986 | 6,43,351 | 15.64% |
Group Single Premium | 138 | 107 | 28.97% |
Group Non Single Premium | 19 | 11 | 72.73% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 470 | 537 | -12.48% |
Private Insurer No. of Policies | 7,77,259 | 6,69,481 | 16.10% |
LIC OF INDIA | |||
Individual Single Premium | 73,972 | 70,566 | 4.83% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 16,41,495 | 15,42,612 | 6.41% |
Group Single Premium | 34 | 19 | 78.95% |
Group Non Single Premium | 420 | 472 | -11.02% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 2,639 | 2,379 | 10.93% |
LIC No. of Policies | 17,18,560 | 16,16,048 | 6.34% |
Data Source: Life Insurance Council (Number of Policies are absolute figures)
Here are some quick takeaways from the data points on insurance for February 2024 in terms of the number of policies sold.
Growth in number of policies for FY24 (Apr-23 to Feb-24)
The table below captures the cumulative performance of LIC, private insurers and the overall insurance sector for FY24 (Apr-23 to Feb-24) based on the number of policies sold.
PARTICULARS | No. of Policies (FY24) |
No. of Policies (FY23) |
Growth in Policies YOY (%) |
Individual Single Premium | 10,35,400 | 10,73,745 | -3.57% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 2,27,29,512 | 2,21,03,506 | 2.83% |
Group Single Premium | 2,204 | 1,671 | 31.90% |
Group Non Single Premium | 3,819 | 5,170 | -26.13% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 33,162 | 30,655 | 8.18% |
Grand Total No. of Policies | 2,38,04,097 | 2,32,14,747 | 2.54% |
PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES | |||
Individual Single Premium | 2,45,875 | 2,34,493 | 4.85% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 72,21,724 | 65,66,423 | 9.98% |
Group Single Premium | 1,623 | 993 | 63.44% |
Group Non Single Premium | 86 | 213 | -59.62% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 5,443 | 3,976 | 36.90% |
Private Insurer No. of Policies | 74,74,751 | 68,06,098 | 9.82% |
LIC OF INDIA | |||
Individual Single Premium | 7,89,525 | 8,39,252 | -5.93% |
Individual Non Single Premium | 1,55,07,788 | 1,55,37,083 | -0.19% |
Group Single Premium | 581 | 678 | -14.31% |
Group Non Single Premium | 3,733 | 4,957 | -24.69% |
Group Yearly Renewable Premium | 27,719 | 26,679 | 3.90% |
LIC No. of Policies | 1,63,29,346 | 1,64,08,649 | -0.48% |
Data Source: Life Insurance Council (Cumulative Data from Apr-23 to Feb-24)
Here are some quick takeaways from the data points on insurance for FY24 (Apr-Feb) in terms of the number of policies sold.
LIC is getting adjusted to the new insurance order
It looks like the LIC is finally getting over its obsession with Section 80C benefits to sell its life insurance products. That was the paradigm for over 65 years, but now that is changing. One reason is that private insurers are eating into the LIC market share. Things did appear to move against the LIC after the introduction of the new tax regime (NTR) last year. However, LIC seems to have got its act together post-November 2023, with tangible growth in NBP and in number of policies sold. Not surprisingly, the stock of LIC has more than doubled from the lows of last year and it is finally decisively above the IPO issue price.
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