New business premium declines due to Covid-19 induced shortfall in March

Bharti AXA Life Insurance, a private life insurer, has registered a 17 per cent growth in its renewal premium for the fiscal year 2019-20 at ₹1,359 crore, as against ₹1,164 crore registered in the previous financial year 2018-19.

However, the Covid-19 induced lockdown impacted the performance in March — a crucial month for life insurance industry — bringing down the new business premium for 2019-20 to ₹829 crore from ₹911 crore in the previous fiscal. The total premium income grew 5 per cent in 2019-20 to ₹2,187 crore (₹2,076 crore).

Parag Raja, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, said, “We grew and registered steady performance on many business parameters in the financial year 2019-20, despite the disruption caused by the spread of coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown in the crucial month of March, which adversely affected the domestic life insurance industry in terms of new business. Our new business premiums contracted mainly due to a shortfall in March, an important month for new business in the industry, which was triggered by the Covid19 lockdown and social distancing.”

Assets under management witnessed a surge of 21 per cent in 2019-20 to ₹6,902 crore (₹5,699 crore).

Increasing distribution footprint

The company continued to expand its operation and distribution footprint across India in the last financial year in terms of recruitment of fresh advisors and setting up of new branches, with a view to creating a large pool of productive agents and reaching out to every nook and corner of the country.

This life insurer set up 25 new branches to take an enhanced distribution network of 261 branches across the country during 2019-20, up over 10 per cent over 236 branches in 2018-19.

Bharti AXA Life Insurance added 3,934 new advisors to strengthen its net agent force to 43,316 in the financial year ended March 31, 2020, up 10 per cent 39,382 advisors in 2018-19.

“Protection continues to be a cardinal part of our differentiated product mix as it brings real insurance products to the customers and builds a safety net for their families. The prevailing situation has made us to re-imagine the entire sales process from face-to-face meetings to remotely approaching the customers and closing the transaction. The trainings have been modified to suit digital solicitation. We have also created digital sales tools that make the entire conversation more interesting and interactive for the customers,” Raja said.

Published on June 08, 2020

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