HDFC Standard Life new premium income up by 63 pc

{image-HDFC life_14052008.jpg news.oneindia.in}Mumbai, May 14: HDFC Standard Life, one of the leading private life insurance companies in India, has generated New Business Premium Income of Rs 2,685 crore in FY2007-08 registering a year-on-year growth of 63 per cent. The growth was primarily driven by the success of the Company's initiative on structured sales processes based on customer needs and their assessments.

The Company CEO and MD Deepak Satwalekar in a release issued here, attributed growth to the quality of life insurance solutions offered by the company and its increased geographical reach. He also emphasised, ''We believe that our success is a result of our efforts in giving customers, the best long-term solutions to take care of their insurance needs. Our endeavour to provide high quality insurance and pension solutions to customers through quality pre-sales advice, based on a sound need-based solutions approach, and post-sales service has started to pay off.'' Other highlights included group business funds under management increasing to Rs 959 crore, registering a growth of 83 per cent over FY 2006-07, average premium has increased to Rs 33,000 and products and services availability spread to 726 cities and towns across the country.

The cumulative sum assured for all policies issued upto March 31, 2008 crossed Rs 87,000 crore. Over 50 per cent of the sum assured as on March 31, 2008, was in respect of non unit-linked policies.

As against the regulatory requirement of writing 18 per cent of all policies in rural areas, HDFC Standard Life has issued over 2,17,000 policies accounting for 23 per cent of all policies issued during 2007-08.

More over, during 2007-08, HDFC Standard Life has covered 51,326 lives under the social sector category, as against the requirement of 25,000 lives. Overall, the Company has covered over 9,59,000 lives during the year ending March 31, 2008.

To meet the demands arising from the Company's rapid growth, shareholders have contributed additional Rs 470 crore of equity to take the paid-up share capital as on March 2008 to Rs 1,271 crore.

UNI