Life insurers' new business premiums rise 2% in March 2025 after a sluggish February

Life insurance council releases March 2025 data

India’s life insurance industry saw a modest 2 percent year-on-year uptick in new business premiums (NBP) in March 2025, at Rs 61,439 crore, provisional data released by the Life Insurance Council showed.

This growth comes after a sluggish February 2025 and was led by improved performance in group business segments, although individual policy sales remain under pressure.

The recovery in March this year was primarily driven by group single premiums, which contributed Rs 33,543 crore for the month. This segment saw nearly flat year-on-year growth, yet remained the highest contributor to the industry’s monthly collections.

Individual single premiums rose 13 percent on-year to Rs 7,420 crore, indicating some traction in single-payment policies despite concerns around policy volume growth.

For the year, private insurers continued to outperform the public sector giant LIC, in terms of growth momentum.

The combined NBP of private life insurance players rose 9.8 percent on-year to Rs 1.71 lakh crore for FY25, while LIC saw a modest 1.86 percent rise to Rs 2.26 lakh crore.

Private insurers such as HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential, and Tata AIA reported double-digit growth in premium collections.

In March 2025, HDFC Life collected Rs 33,761 crore, a growth of 12.6 percent, while ICICI Prudential posted a 24.9 percent rise at Rs 22,583 crore, driven by a nearly doubling of group yearly renewable premiums. Tata AIA also saw broad-based growth across all segments, ending the year with Rs 10,321 crore in premiums, up 16 percent.

Despite the overall premium increase, the total number of new policies and schemes issued across the sector dropped 7.39 percent to 27.06 crore.

LIC’s policy count fell sharply by 12.8 percent during the year, reflecting subdued retail interest.

Several emerging insurers such as GoDigit Life, Bandhan Life (formerly Aegon Life), and Future Generali have posted strong gains. GoDigit grew its premium base by over 150 percent, aided by aggressive expansion in group and non-single premium products.

Bandhan Life saw a near 98 percent surge in collections following a strategic realignment, while Future Generali nearly doubled its overall premiums.