Investors in LIC's insurance and other schemes are receiving a lower rate of return because LIC is subsidising incompetence at best and malfeasance at worst in institutions such as IDBI Bank and IL&FS, says Jaimini Bhagwati.
The life insurance industry reported a 25.28 per cent decline in new business premium income in November 2023 to Rs 26,494.83 crore from Rs 34,588.8 crore recorded a year ago. The fall in group premium and change in taxation norms for policies with a higher ticket size dragged the premiums of the state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and private insurers, respectively. According to the data released by the Life Insurance Council, the premium of private insurers slipped 9.33 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 10,360.29 crore from Rs 11,426.73 crore as a result of a change in product mix due to the measures taken to counter the impact of tax imposed on the premiums of Rs 5 lakh.
This is despite the private sector companies outperforming their public sector counterparts, reports Sachin P Mampatta.
Just ahead of its mega FPO opening to public investors, Vodafone Idea (VIL) has announced closure of its anchor book allocation, raising about Rs 5,400 crore from marquee global as well as domestic investors, according to a statutory filing by the telco. This could be the third-largest anchor book after One 97 Communications and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). One 97 Communications and LIC had raised Rs 8,235 crore and Rs 5,627 crore in the anchor round, respectively.
rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
The National Commission indicted LIC for working in cahoots with doctors for baseless certificates to repudiate claims and held this to be an unfair practice.
The total benefits paid by private life insurance companies to policyholders rose by 5.98 per cent to Rs 1.57 trillion during 2022-23. This figure stood at Rs 1.49 trillion in the corresponding year-ago period. On the other hand, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) paid out 4 per cent fewer benefits at Rs 3.39 trillion from Rs 3.53 trillion in 2021-22.
'LIC's proposed investment will come out of what is technically called the 'policyholders funds'.' 'As the name implies, these monies belong to policyholders; that is, you, me and 25 crore others who have taken a total of 30 crore policies from LIC.' 'It is not the government's or LIC's money to play poker with,' says S Muralidharan, former managing director, BNP Paribas.
State-un insurer LIC has pared its stake in Infosys to 5.96 per cent, reducing its holding in the IT major in the last quarter with an estimated sale of shares worth over Rs 2,000 crore.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced a dollar-rupee two-year sell-buy swap auction for $5 billion on March 8, which will suck out rupee liquidity from the system. The swap will be in the nature of a simple sell/buy foreign exchange from the RBI side, in which a bank will buy US dollars from the central bank and simultaneously agree to sell the same amount of US dollars at the end of the swap period. "With a view to elongating the maturity profile of its forward book and smoothen the receivables relating to forward assets, it has been decided to undertake sell/buy swap auction of $5 billion on March 8, 2022," the RBI said in a statement. The auction cut-off will be based on the premium amount in paisa terms up to two decimal points.
Equity markets may witness a gradual up-move this week with some volatility as both election and earnings season are nearing their end, analysts said, adding that global trends and trading activity of foreign investors would hold significance in dictating investors' sentiment. Benchmark indices, which had a record-breaking rally last week, would also track global oil benchmark Brent crude and the rupee-dollar trend. The monthly derivatives expiry on Thursday may also fuel volatility in markets.
The exposure, which is for the period ended September 2019, is across various platforms such as life funds, pension funds, and unit-linked funds.
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Friday got its first female managing director and another new MD.
Equity fundraising through initial public offerings (IPOs) rose 20 per cent during the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). During the period, 76 Indian corporates raised Rs 61,915 crore through main board IPOs, compared to Rs 52,116 crore mobilised by 37 IPOs in 2022-23, as disclosed by PRIME Database. However, if one excludes the mega Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) IPO, which came out in 2022-23, IPO mobilisation increased by 58 per cent from last year.
Ask rediffGURU and tax expert Mihir Tanna your income tax-related questions.
While IDBI Bank's 140 million customers and 1800-odd branches will come in handy for LIC to hawk insurance, the bank can use LIC's massive agent network to sell its retail loans. But if it is run the same way it had been in the past and LIC is a proxy of the government, then it has no future, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
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.
Children's plans contribute close to 10 per cent to the total premium collected through the 50-odd life insurance products across the country.
Equity fundraising through initial public offerings (IPOs) rose 20 per cent during the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). During the period, 76 Indian corporates raised Rs 61,915 crore through main board IPOs, compared to Rs 52,116 crore mobilised by 37 IPOs in 2022-23, as disclosed by PRIME Database. However, if one excludes the mega Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) IPO, which came out in 2022-23, IPO mobilisation increased by 58 per cent from last year.
Private insurance firms say, over the past few years, they have been investing on digital technologies to reach semi urban and rural areas.
'While some women allow themselves to be exploited so that they can climb up the ladder, there are many voiceless and silent people who get exploited by men in powerful positions.'
Insurer has also made fresh investments since December 2015 quarter when RBI told banks to recognise bad loans
The next step for the Life Insurance Corporation of India is to approach market regulator Sebi, as the bank, which is also state-owned, is a listed entity.
'Those betting against PSUs will likely be punished in this upswing.'
According to sources, in a January 6 letter to the department of financial services under the finance ministry, LIC said it wanted to stop sponsoring LIC Nomura Mutual Fund, and might offer some of its stake in LIC Housing Finance to other shareholders.
Private life insurers are expected to deliver decent growth in the first quarter of the 2023-24 financial year (Q1FY24) on the back of stronger group business performance and easing supply-side constraints on individual protection. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), though, is likely to see a decline. Healthy 12 per cent year-on-year (YoY) retail annual premium equivalent (APE) growth for private players, coupled with 11 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in LIC, will pull retail APE growth to a mere 3 per cent YoY in June 2023.
The Government is likely to stand guarantee to Life Insurance Corporation for risk management losses instead of amending LIC Act to allow it to tap the market or infuse fresh capital.
The unclaimed funds within the life insurance sector are higher from policies sold by agents as against other channels like bancassurance or a digital platform, said analysts and officials from insurance companies. Unclaimed life insurance funds refer to the proceeds of insurance policies including death or survival benefits not claimed by the beneficiary or the policyholder. Bancassurance means selling an insurance product through banks.
Insurer likely to support Ratan Tata; reduction in stake might have been profit booking.
LIC Chairman T S Vijayan on Friday said that V K Sharma will take over as the CEO of its housing finance arm, early next week. Sharma has been chosen to replace LIC Housing Finance CEO Ramachandran Nair, who was arrested by the CBI on charges of involvement in housing-loan bribery case on Wednesday.
The Life Insurance Corporation of India has opened a branch in Muscat to cater to over 300,000 non-resident Indians in Oman.
The election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with the Reserve Bank of India's commitment to contain inflation have sparked the improved confidence.
India's biggest life insurer and financial institution has turned to its 'turnaround man' to restore credibility to prime subsidiary LIC Housing Finance (LICHF). Vijay Kumar Sharma, 52, formally took over as its CEO on Wednesday. Sharma comes from Chennai, where over the past one year he turned LIC's south zone into the best performer after a 20-month slowdown.
Analysts say strengthening bank's capital will boost earnings, bank needs chief with long stint to run show
'At the policy's maturity, the total premium is refunded.'
Roy joined the largest insurance company in the country in 1981.
P V Subramanyam clears some misconceptions about debt funds.
With over Rs 55,000 crore debt, Air India management has been trying to pare burden by monetising non-core real estate properties.
The Life Insurance Corporation of India has sold more than 15.46 mn individual policies during the current financial year with a collection of more than Rs 68,254.3 million (Rs 6825. 43 crore), posting a growth rate of more than 35 per cent as on Feb
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