Life insurers reported a 48% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in new business premium (NBP) in February, on the back of the strong growth shown by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) coupled with robust performance by private life insurers.

According to the data released by Life Insurance Council, the NBP of life insurance companies came in at Rs 33,913.18 crore, 48.43% higher than the Rs 22,847.65 crore in the year-ago period.

LIC's premium increased by 67.48% to Rs 19,896.01 crore as against to Rs 11,879.49 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Private life insurance companies reported 27.80% growth to Rs 14,017.17 crore from Rs 10,968.16 crore.

LIC witnessed growth because of a surge in group single premium. It is the largest player in the group single-premium market. The group single premium of the company nearly doubled to Rs 14,661.31 crore.

Meanwhile, even as private insurers lead in the individual segment they posted healthy growth across segments. Among large private players, the premium of the largest private life insurer, SBI Life, grew around 32% to Rs 2,648.86 crore.

In the meantime, other private-sector players posted healthy growth. HDFC Life's NBP rose by 14.49% to Rs 2,602.11 crore and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance's increased 32.54% to Rs 1,763.33 crore.

The NBP of Bajaj Allianz Life grew by 12.92% to Rs 1,050.04 crore and Max Life Insurance's climbed around 51% to Rs 1,097.09 crore.

According to experts, usually the February-March period is important for insurance companies typically because customers buy policies and products for tax saving by late January or in February. This is likely to have led to the growth.

In April-February FY24, the NBP of life insurers slipped 0.22% Y-o-Y to more than Rs 3.17 trillion as compared to above Rs 3.18 trillion in the same period of the previous year. LIC's premium dropped 8.35% to above Rs 2.03 trillion whereas private insurers' grew by 14.09% Y-o-Y to more than Rs 1.15 trillion.

NBP is the premium of life insurance companies from new policies for a particular year. It is the sum of the first-year premium and single premium, reflecting the total from new businesses.