Mumbai: LIC continues to be ahead of private life companies in paying out claims with a settlement ratio of 98.31% for FY17. Private life insurers have improved their claim settlement ratio 93.72% compared to 91.48% during the previous year.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) on Thursday released its annual report for FY17 which includes industry statistics. According to the report, LIC has been ahead of others in resolving complaints. During 2016-17, private life insurers resolved 99.73% of complaints reported, while LIC resolved 100% of the complaints — as a result of which there were no pending complaints of LIC as of March 31, 2017.

The statistics are based on complaints registered with the IRDAI's Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS). The IGMS is a repository of the insurance industry complaints. It acts both as a platform to raise customer grievances with insurers and also a tool for IRDAI to generate analytical reports on customer grievances.

IRDAI member (life) Nilesh Sathe said that while claim-settlement ratio had improved for the industry, complaints had gone down and persistency (renewal) of policies had increased. "This is a reflection that mis-selling has gone down and industry players are serious in looking at performance parameters," said Sathe.

During the financial year 2016-17, the life insurance industry reported a profit after tax of Rs 7,727.9 crore as against Rs 7,415.43 crore in 2015-16. Out of 24 life insurers in operations during 2016-17, 18 companies reported profits.

Life insurance industry recorded a premium income of Rs 4,18,477 crore during 2016-17 as against Rs 3,66,943 crore in the previous financial year, registering a growth of 14.04% (11.84% growth in previous year). While private sector insurers posted 17.40% growth (13.64% growth in previous year) in their premium income, LIC recorded 12.78% growth (11.17% growth in previous year).

On the basis of total premium income, the market share of LIC decreased from 72.61% in 2015-16 to 71.81% in 2016-17. The market share of private insurers has increased from 27.39% in 2015-16 to 28.19% in 2016-17.