Private sector player beat public sector insurers in terms of growth in premiums
General insurance companies have posted a 17 percent rise in gross written premiums for the financial year 2017-18, compared to the previous fiscal. The insurers posted Rs 1.33 lakh crore in gross written premiums for FY18 compared to Rs 1.14 lakh crore in FY17.
The private sector general insurers (excluding standalone health insurers) saw a higher rate of growth at 21.6 percent compared to the four public general insurers’ growth of 13 percent. State-owned insurers including New India Assurance, National Insurance, Oriental India Insurance and United India Insurance collected gross direct premium of Rs 67,921.17 crore compared to Rs 65,427.16 crore collected by private sector insurers.
The country's largest general insurer, New India, collected gross written premium of Rs 22,695.95 crore, showing a 19 percent growth.Gross written premiums in FY18
Source: IRDAI
Among all segments, the six standalone health insurers put together saw a 41.6 percent growth which was the highest.
In terms of market share, public sector general insurers held 45.07 percent share while private general insurers held 43.41 percent share. The rest was held by standalone health insurers (5.50 percent) and specialised insurers (6.01 percent).
ICICI Lombard General Insurance was the fourth largest in the industry in terms of market share and first among private sector players with a 8.2 percent market share. It collected Rs 12,356.85 crore as gross written premium for FY18, showing a year-on-year growth of 15.21 percent.
In the private sector, this insurer was followed by Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and HDFC ERGO General Insurance.