Life insurance premiums drop 8% in Jan 2025; PNB MetLife, Godigit shine amidst LIC’s decline

Insurance premiums data in January 2025

The new business premiums (NBP) of life insurance companies declined by 8 percent year-on-year (YoY) in January 2025, falling to Rs 30,825.17 crore from Rs 33,559.75 crore.

The drop was driven by a continued decline in Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) new premium business for the third consecutive month, along with a slight moderation in private life insurers’ premiums, according to provisional data from the Life Insurance Council.

The number of policies and schemes issued also fell, declining 2.72 percent year-on-year to 2.54 million for January.

LIC, the dominant player in the industry, saw its total premium collections for January 2025 fall to Rs 16,292.67 crore from Rs 18,920.77 crore from the year ago period, marking a downward trend from December 2024’s Rs 13,523.87 crore.

LIC saw an 8.81 percent drop in individual non-single premium policy issuance, while private insurers witnessed a 19.70 percent growth in the same category, reflecting changing consumer preferences toward private players.

Private insurers experienced a mild decline in total premiums in January with Rs 14,532.50 compared to Rs 14,638.98 crore in the year ago period, compared to Rs 16,694.85 crore in December.

The fall in group single premium collections also played a key role in the decline, with LIC reporting Rs 10,879.10 crore compared to Rs 12,420.79 crore in the previous year. Despite this, private insurers continued to gain traction across the individual premium categories.

Among private insurers, PNB MetLife reported a significant surge, with highest individual single premium collections in January soaring by 1009.77 percent to Rs 101.02 crore from just Rs 7.49 crore last year.

Godigit Life Insurance recorded 213.72 percent growth in total premiums, largely driven by a 273.97 percent increase in group single premium collections.

SBI Life Insurance remained the top private insurer, collecting Rs 3,275.26 crore in total premiums for January, though this marked a 5.41 percent decline from the previous year.

HDFC Life Insurance, on the other hand, registered 12.87 percent growth, collecting Rs 3,011.44 crore in total premiums.