Public sector insurers lose 9% market share this fiscal

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the sole public sector player, may be regaining its lost market share, but its counterparts in the general insurance business continue losing business to private parties at a much faster pace.

Numbers released by the regulator, IRDA, depict that the four public sector general insurers have lost 9% market share in the first nine months of 2006-07. By comparison, they had lost only about 6% of their pie to private players during in the whole of 2005-06.

The eight private insurers controlled 26% of the market till March 2006. Which increased to 35% in the first nine months of 2006-07. Interestingly, their share during 2005-06 rose from 20% in March 2005 to 26% in March 2006 — a rise of only 6%.

The four public sector general insurers — National Insurance, Oriental Insurance, New India Assurance and United India Insurance — collectively controlled around 65% of the market by December 2006, against 74% in December 2005. Incidentally, the entire general insurance industry has witnessed a 24% growth in premium income during the first nine months of the current fiscal. Total premium income for the period stood at Rs 18,577 crore in the period under consideration, against Rs 15,023 crore in the previous period.

Private insurers registered a higher total premium income of Rs 6,517.9 crore in the period under consideration against Rs 4,010.4 crore in the previous corresponding period. The four public sector insurers, on the other hand, recorded a total premium income of Rs 12,059.3 crore in the first nine months of the current financial against Rs 11,012.4 crore in the nine months period of 2005-06.

Source: Times News Network