'However, this process will take some time. Depending on the approval timeline, it may span a few quarters.'
Following Axis Max Life Insurance's second-quarter results for 2025-26, Sumit Madan, managing director and chief executive officer of the company, speaks to Aathira Varier and Subrata Panda/Business Standard about growth aspirations, strategies to offset the impact of the input tax credit (ITC) withdrawal, reverse merger plans, and more.
Major life insurers in India reported close to double-digit growth in the value of new business (VNB) last financial year, primarily driven by increased sales of high-margin protection and non-participating (non-par) products.
The loss of input tax credit (ITC) following the rationalisation of the goods and services tax (GST) on individual life and health insurance from 18 per cent to nil is may weigh on the profits of life insurers in the third quarter (Q3) of 2025-26 (FY26).
Max Life Insurance plans to hire 30,000 agents and open 50 to 100 new offices in the financial year 2024-25 (FY25) to drive premium growth, said Prashant Tripathy, managing director and chief executive officer of the company. The private insurer's total agent count will rise to 1,30,000 in FY25. It added 47,957 agents in FY24, 54 per cent more than the year before.
New business premiums of life insurance companies dropped 5.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in August to Rs 30,959 crore, owing to a double-digit decline reported by state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), data from the Life Insurance Council showed. LIC recorded a 17 per cent YoY fall in new business premiums to Rs 16,023 crore during the month, while private life insurers reported a 12 per cent YoY increase to Rs 14,936 crore.
The new business premium (NBP) of life insurance companies dropped 21.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 30,218.71 crore in December 2024 on the back of a steep fall in business. According to data published by the Life Insurance Council, LIC's premium dropped 41.15 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 13,523.87 crore while private insurers reported 7 per cent growth in NBP to Rs 16,694.85 crore as the industry absorbs the impact of the revised surrender value norms.
Recent years have been turbulent for the insurance industry due to direct and indirect tax reforms, regulatory overhaul and other external pressures. The events cumulatively slowed growth rate to single digits from the high teens seen earlier.
Insurance companies are processing a surge of claims related to the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, including travel, personal accident, and life insurance claims.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India's (Irdai's) decision to allow insurers to hedge risks through equity derivatives will help them manage market volatility and protect policyholder returns. However, this move is unlikely to alter their investment strategies.
Private life insurers experienced reasonable growth in the July-September quarter (second quarter, or Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24), and the October data is also encouraging. The individual weighted received premium (WRP) for private players grew by 19.8 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in October. However, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India had slower growth, pulling the industry growth rate down to 13 per cent Y-o-Y.
HDFC and HDFC Bank's merger - touted as India's biggest-ever corporate merger - pumped up shares of the two entities on the bourses. Shares of Housing Finance Development Corporation (HDFC) skyrocketed 9 per cent while those of HDFC Bank zoomed 10 per cent. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSESensex and the Nifty50 indices settled 2.2 per cent higher on Monday.
'Unless it becomes really a big epidemic in India where a huge number of people are getting sick and lakhs of people dying, I do not see a major impact on the insurance sector.'
'We tightened our risk frameworks once the Covid crisis started.' 'We are slowly lightening this as we see economic activity pick up, salaries getting restored, and people getting back into jobs.'
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
In HDFC Life, the company has to pare 1.43 per cent, and in HDFC Ergo, it has to pare only 0.58 per cent.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
'The smartest businessmen are shopkeepers as their return on investment is better than anyone else.'
Sources say given the complexity involved in the process of creating a holding company, which will ultimately be the parent company of banking and other businesses, banks are going slow in acquiring stakes in insurance arms or mutual funds of other lenders.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
We must stop stigmatising business failures. Particularly when startups are mushrooming all around, the financial system, backed by the RBI and the government, can explore ways of extending support to restart the journey of a failed entrepreneur by finance as well as counselling, recommends Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Bank shares were the top losers along with index heavyweight RIL
Here are four things to keep in mind after buying life insurance
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, will answers your queries.
India's GDP for the three-month period ended September 30 grew 7.4%.
RBI has, since January, cut its policy rate four times.
The S&P BSE Sensex shed 286 points to close at 24,539 and the Nifty50 lost 100 points to end at 7,456.
The 30-share Sensex surged 299 points to close at 28,736 and the 50-share Nifty gained 90 points to end at 8,723.
The rally in index heavyweight ITC has boosted the sentiment across the board.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
'Today, according to the law, you can't even claim legal expenses when fighting a case as a non-executive director unless you are acquitted. Given how high legal expenses are, that alone is enough to scare anyone away.'
