Collective gross premium for non-life insurers grows 18%

Collective gross written premium for non-life insurance companies grew 18.14% year-on-year to Rs 18,196 crore for the month of May from Rs 15,402.21 crore for the same period last year, according to the General Insurance Council’ flash report.  

The flash report, which appeared on Tuesday, showed during May gross written premium for 24 general insurance companies grew 17.45% y-o-y at 15,933.29 crore while for five standalone health insurers it increased by 22.94% y-o-y at Rs 2098.19 crore.

Collective gross written premium for non-life insurance companies grew 19.44% y-o-y to Rs 43,812 crore for the first two month of the current financial year from Rs 36,679.90 crore for the same period of the last financial year. During the first two months of FY24, gross written premium for the general insurance companies grew 18.24% y-o-y at Rs 39,280.14 crore while for the standalone health insurers it rose 28.36% y-o-y at Rs 4182.28 crore.

PSU insurer New India Assurance, the market leader in the non-life insurance space, saw a 10.16% y-o-y increase in its premium underwritten to Rs 7480.73 crore in the first two month of this fiscal while for United India Insurance it rose by 7.70% y-o-y at Rs 3287.64 crore during the period. 

Among major general insurers in the private sector, for ICICI Lombard General Insurance, premium for April and May this year grew 18.32% y-o-y at Rs 4474.47 crore while for HDFC Ergo it grew 15.27% y-o-y at Rs 2454.91 crore. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance witnessed a 22.04% y-o-y jump in its premium at Rs 2643.08 crore. 

Among leading standalone health insurers, Star Health and Allied Insurance and Care Health Insurance registered 20.15% and 34.49% y-o-y growth in their gross direct premiums at Rs 1821.01 crore and Rs 951.17 crore, respectively, for the first two months of 2023-24.

Every standalone health insurance company was able to increase its market shares during the first two months on a year-on-year basis. 

Collective market share of the five standalone health insurers rose in the first two months of FY24 to 9.55% from 8.88% in the same period of FY23, according to the flash report of the General Insurance Council. During the period under review the general insurance companies saw a marginal drop in their collective market share to 89.66% from 90.57% during the corresponding period last fiscal.