Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has consolidated its position on top of the market share list at the expense of its smaller rivals, latest business numbers from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) show.
LIC has improved market share to 68.57% until July 2022 from 65.42% at the end of June. The market share for the public sector giant is also higher than the 65.11% reported a year ago. LIC collected a total premium of ₹29,117 crore in July 2022, more than double the ₹12,031 crore it had collected a year earlier.
SBI Life, the life insurance company controlled by State Bank of India (SBI), maintained its market share above 7%, though it dipped to 7.02% from 7.59% in June. SBI reported a 54% rise in total premium, collecting ₹7,915 crore, up from ₹5,145 crore a year ago.
HDFC Life and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance also maintained their number three and four rankings in terms of market share. HDFC Life had a 6.01% market share at the end of July, down from 8.01% a year ago, while ICICI Prudential Life cornered 4.02% of market, down from 5.08% a year ago.
"After reporting a healthy growth over the past few months, the industry witnessed a moderation in July '22," Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a report. "We expect growth to remain healthy, given the strong demand for annuity and non-participatory policies and a recovery in the protection business, while the growth in ULIP (unit-linked insurance plans) may remain soft due to volatile markets."
All listed players reported weak trends in terms of individual weighted received premium (WRP), with HDFC Life and SBI Life posting a respective decline of 3.3% and 4.7% on-year in July 2022 compared to a three-year compounded growth rate of 8.7% and 7.4%, respectively. ICICI Prudential Life posted a decline of 5.6% year-on-year while Max Life reported the highest decline of 8.7%.
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