While subdued new premium growth due to poor auto sales and lack of new projects caused sluggish trend in the general insurance industry, the performance of IFFCO-Tokio has been impressive, according to a report coming from the horse’s mouth.
IFFCO Managing Director Dr U S Awasthi has appreciated the growth rate of the cooperative arm IFFCO-Tokio which is said to have outstripped the average growth rate of the Indian insurance industry.
Business expansion in FY 2015 for the sector has infact come down to a three-year low of 9.3 per cent at Rs 84,715 crore, according to provisional data while last year it grew at the rate of 13 per cent, according to IRDA sources.
An impressive performance in not so encouraging times led Awasthi to tweet” Good news @IFFCO__TOKIO growth rate has outstripped the avg. growth rate of the Indian #insurance ind. #ITGI @tokiomarine_cor @y_lohiya.”
As reported in these columns earlier some of the plans of the cooperative arm such as Muskarate Raho have seen huge premium collection for the IFFCO-Tokio.
Responding to Dr Awasthi’s tweets Yogesh Lohiya , MD of IFFCO-Tokio tweeted thanking the former for his support. Yogesh Lohiya tweeted “ @drusawasthi @IFFCO__TOKIO @tokiomarine_cor Sir, thanks for your support. We w’d continue to achieve similar milestones during this FY also.”
The insurance industry of India consists of 52 insurance companies of which 24 are in life insurance business and 28 are non-life insurers.
India’s life insurance sector is the biggest in the world with about 36 crore policies which are expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12-15 per cent over the next five years. The insurance industry plans to hike penetration levels to five per cent by 2020, and could top the US$ 1 trillion mark in the next seven years.
The total market size of India’s insurance sector is projected to touch US$ 350-400 billion by 2020 from US$ 66.4 billion in FY13.
The future looks interesting for the life insurance industry with several changes in regulatory framework which will lead to further changes in the way the industry conducts its business and engages with its customers. The IFFCO-Tokio is well placed to exploit the opportunities, said an employee of the Insurance Agency.