SBI Life is top private insurer

Private sector insurance company, SBI Life Insurance has emerged the single largest group policy seller among private players by capturing as much as 10 per cent of the total market till August 2004.

The company which managed a five per cent share till April 2004 has doubled its stake in the last five months, while Life Insurance Corporation has seen its share in the segment decline to 70 per cent from 72 per cent in the same period.

The SBI joint venture sold as many as 2.65 lakh lives under its group single and non-single policies of which around two lakh were single and 65,000 from non-single policies.

Nevertheless, total premium underwritten by the industry till August, 2004, towards individual single and non-single policies stood at Rs 1,185 crore (Rs 11.85 billion) and Rs 4,389 crore (Rs 43.89 billion), respectively, accounting for 273,000 and 7.385 million policies. Group single and non-single premium accounted for Rs 1,399 crore (Rs 13.99 billion) and Rs 128 crore (Rs 1.28 billion) of premium collection.

Total Individual premium and group premium underwritten was Rs 5,572 crore (Rs 55.72 billion) and Rs 1,527 crore (Rs 15.27 billion) respectively against Rs 3,546 crore (Rs 35.46 billion) and Rs 788 crore (Rs 7.88 billion) underwritten in the corresponding previous period.

Number of lives covered by the industry under the various group schemes was 2.585 million during the period ended August, 2004. Tata AIG with 129,000 lives accounted for 5.02 per cent while MetLife with 84,501 lives accounted for 3.27 per cent.

Premium underwritten by LIC under Varisth Pension Bima Yojana during the period ended April - July, 2004 was Rs 1,072 crore (Rs 10.72 billion) towards 54,740 policies.

The life insurance industry as a whole underwrote new business premium of Rs 1,580 crore (Rs 15.80 billion) during August, 2004, taking the cumulative premium underwritten during the current year to Rs 7,101 crore (Rs 71.01 billion).

LIC underwrote Rs 5,844 crore (Rs 58.44 billion) of premium up to August, 2004 which translated into a 82.30 per cent market share, followed by ICICI Prudential and Birla Sunlife with market share 5.63 per cent and 2.56 per cent, respectively.