Optima Insurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd.

Four public sector general insurance companies of India have lost their combined market share by 1.75% year-on-year basis, capturing 32.27% share for the financial year ended on 31st March 2023 (FY2023). All leading public sector general insurers — New India Assurance, United India Insurance, Oriental Insurance Company and National Insurance Company — reported loss of market share in FY2023 in terms of gross direct premium underwritten, due to intense competition from private players in the non-life insurance business.

The weaker underwriting performance of the four public sector insurers has limited their overall profitability and solvency position. The high losses in underwriting along with extremely low solvency ratios allow limited headroom for them to underwrite new business.

Insurer Market Share Premiums
FY2023 Y-o-Y Change FY2023 (INR mn) Y-o-Y Change
New India Assurance 13.42% -1.33% 344,871.5 5.87%
United India 6.87% -0.25% 176,433.2 12.22%
Oriental 6.08% -0.13% 156,095.7 13.85%
National 5.90% -0.04% 151,557.6 15.47%

The premium income rose lesser than the average growth for the non-life market, for these 4 public sector general insurers. As per General Insurance council’s report, the total gross direct premium underwritten by non-life insurance companies in FY2023 grew by 16.36% to INR 2.57 tn ($ 31.4 bn) from INR 2.21 tn in FY2022.