According to the latest report from Life Insurance Council, private insurers in India have taken up another 5% of new premium business share from LIC taking up their total market share to 30% for the year ending March 2015.
The combined total collection of new business premiums of 23 private insurers stood at Rs 34,382 crore (30%) whereas LIC closed at Rs.90,645 crore (70%) for fiscal year 2014-15. Last year (2013-14), the new business premium collection of private players was Rs.29,517 crore (25%) and LIC was at Rs.78,308 crore (75%). This shows a 14% decline in the new premium collection of LIC during the year, pulling down its overall market share to 70% from 75% in 2013-14.
Off late, private insurers have launched several attractive new products and are using the online medium of distribution aggressively. Majority of the term insurance sales has completely moved online with almost all life insurers selling at least one online term plan. Private life insurers such as HDFC Life, AEGON Religare, Reliance Life and ICICI Prudential have been launching online products year after year to tap new customers. One of the largest private players ICICI Prudential closed new business with Rs.5,333.30 crore in 2014-15 from Rs 3,761.32 crore in 2013-14.
LIC was slow to enter the online term insurance market and so far has not launched any other online endowment or unit-linked policy, which could be one of the reasons for losing market share to private players.
