ICICI
Prudential was the first private insurer to open shop.
After its debut, there has been no looking back. We
find over a dozen private players in the life insurance
market. Similar is the story with the non-life insurance
market.
As
the private insurance companies in the country have
completed five years, it is time to take stock and
find where they stand. Have the private insurance
companies gained the edge which was thought about
five years ago? Are the private companies the clear
winners? Have they pipped the public sector companies
at the post?
The insurance market has really come to life. Prior
to the entry of the private sector players, the insurance
market in our country grew at the average rate of
10-15%. In the last five years, the growth has been
of the order of 20%. There has been a quantum jump
in the first year of the life insurance premium in
the post-2000 period. The growth has been of the order
of 260% in the last five years. In the non-life insurance
sector, the growth has been in the region of
180%.
Most
of the new growth in the last five years has been
coming from private sector companies. The new delivery
channels like bancassurance, corporate agents, brokers,
and direct selling through the Internet have totally
revolutionized the process of selling insurance today.
One of the greatest takeaways of the liberalization
in the insurance sector has been the discernible shift
from the sellers' to the buyers' market.
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