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Life Insurance Council has released updated industry business numbers for the month of July 2024. Amongst several key highlights, new business premiums (NBPs) underwritten by Indian life insurers has achieved a robust Y-o-Y growth of 14.2% in the month of July 2024, with YTD figures recording a 20.5% growth over the same period last year. New business premiums expanded from Rs.27,867.1 Crs in July 2023 to 31,822.69 Crs in July 24, with YTD collections growing even more from Rs.1,00,871.97 Crs to Rs.1,21,549.39 Crs this year. Driven by a strong demand for enhanced insurance protection from individual consumers, new policy issuances too increased by 2.73% on a Y-o-Y basis in July 24, resulting in the addition of 23,88,720 new policies vis-à-vis 23,25,235 policies sold in the year ago period.

According to data released by the Life Insurance Council, the life insurance industry saw individual single premiums growing by 24.82% on a Y-o-Y basis to close at Rs.4,610.66 Crs for July'24 while YTD growth stood at 17.89%. Individual non-single premiums came in at Rs.9,170.53Crs and grew by 18.72% in July 24, even as YTD collections settled at 19.55% higher than the corresponding period last year. This strong performance can be ascribed to the fact that life insurers are increasingly focusing on encouraging first-time life insurance buyers to buy essential life insurance solutions, contributing to the 20.69% growth in combined individual premium collections for the month of July 24 and 19% growth on a YTD basis. In the Group policy segment, single premiums grew by 9.88% with monthly collections coming in at Rs.16,435.24 Crs. In fact, the Group policy category witnessed a 9.68% growth in premiums collected in July 24 while new policy issuances expanded by 10.51% on a Y-o-Y basis.

The life insurance industry in India has been making significant strides forward by expanding access to insurance and making an effort to reach out to areas and segments of the country's population that were previously underserved when it comes to their insurance needs. Towards this end, life insurers added more than 86,621 individual life insurance agents reflecting a 2.99% growth in cumulative agent count and proof of the continued pace of organic expansion. Moreover, the sustained pace of agent addition is being complimented by the high speed of digitisation by life insurers, paving the way for additional gains in insurance
penetration that should provide a significant boost to new business premiums in FY25 and beyond.

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