SBI Life Insurance Company conducted a conference call on 28 October 2023 to discuss financial results for the quarter ended September 2023. Amit Jhingran, MD&CEO of the company addressed the call:

Highlights:

The company continues to focus on strengthening its leadership position and aims to continue to investing in capacity building to support long-term growth.

The industry issued 0.948 million new policies in H1FY2024, while the company maintained private market share in the number of policies.

The company has Share of single premium business at 34.5% in H1FY24 supported by strength in individual annuity product sales.

The company has posted strong 48% growth in sum assured as against 45% growth for the industry.

The company has maintained its guidance for growth in APE at 20% in APE for FY24.

ULIPs have exhibited strong 37% growth in 1H with strong equity markets. The ULIPs have aided an improvement in ticket size.

Non-par has shown 18% decline H1FY24.

Individual annuity grew at 50%.

The company aims to have mix between ULIP and Non ULIP at 55:45.

The company expects strong growth in individual protection in H2 to be supported by new product launches.

The group annuity is witnessing strong and the company expects to continue growth healthy traction. Individual annuity business is also growing at a faster pace.

The company expects VNB margins at 28-30%.

The company has more than 59,000 CIFs and the number of Agents stood at 236,978 during H1FY24, up 33% over the previous year. During H1FY24, the company added over 28,204 agents, on net, to its distribution network.

The company has one of the best persistency in the industry, which is improving across cohorts.

The agency channel is expected further penetrate in Tier 2-3 markets.

There has been no change in the commission rate and that the rates remain consistent across all channels.

All branches of SBI are authorized to sell SBI Life products, but active branches selling insurance products stands at 55-65%.

The company is working on launching various Non-Par Savings products, Return of Premium Protection products as well as Deferred Annuity products during H2FY2024.