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Coronavirus impact: Health insurers buck the trend, see rise in Q1 premiums despite industry slump

For the general insurance industry, the good news is that premiums grew by 7.8 percent in June 2020 to Rs 13,961.25 crore compared to the same period last year.

July 09, 2020 / 04:18 PM IST
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The general insurance industry has seen a 4.2 percent year-on-year (YoY) decline in the gross direct premium for June quarter (Q1) of FY21 at Rs 39,329.62 crore in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

However, the pandemic looked to be bringing good news for standalone health insurers with gross direct premiums seeing 15.8 percent YoY growth to Rs 3,232.10 crore.

For the general insurance industry as a whole, the good news is that premiums grew by 7.8 percent in the month of June 2020 to Rs 13,961.25 crore compared to the same period last year. This data would prove that some green shoots are emerging in the sector.

IRDAI data showed that excluding the specialist insurers (like Agriculture Insurance Company, ECGC) and standalone health insurers, the non-life industry saw a 6 percent YoY decline in gross direct premium to Rs 35,667.60 crore.

Industry officials said the rising concerns about COVID-19 are leading to higher sales of health insurance products. However, sources also said average COVID-19-related claim amount stood at Rs 1.5 lakh which is a ‘manageable’ limit.

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Among the listed insurers, ICICI Lombard saw a 5.3 percent YoY decline in Q1FY21 gross direct premium to Rs 3,302.21 crore.

On the other hand, New India Assurance saw a 5.3 percent YoY growth in premium to Rs 7,516.66 crore.

Raheja QBE General Insurance, which is now being acquired by Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, saw a 45.5 percent YoY rise in Q1 premium collection to Rs 36.17 crore.

In the non-life industry, Edelweiss General Insurance posted the highest growth of 101.2 percent in June quarter premium collection to Rs 36.52 crore.

Moneycontrol News
first published: Jul 9, 2020 04:18 pm

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