17,000 new credit cards issued by ICICI linked to wrong users

Net premium income witnessed an increase of 31.74% YoY at Rs 7538.48 crore.

HDFC Life Insurance Company on July 19 posted a nearly 33% drop in net profit at Rs 302.35 crore for the quarter ended June 30 on the back of higher claims reserving towards heightened claims intimation expected in Q2 and Q3. It had reported a profit of Rs 451.09 crore in the same quarter last year.

Net premium income witnessed an increase of 31.74% YoY at Rs 7538.48 crore. Shares of the company traded 2.55% down at Rs 680.15 at around 3 pm (IST). On the other hand, the benchmark BSE Sensex was down 1.19% at 52,507 at around the same time.

Commenting on the Q1FY22 performance, Vibha Padalkar, MD and CEO, HDFC Life said “Against the backdrop of disruption in business on account of localised lockdowns, and surge in cases during the second wave, we recorded 22% growth and market share of 17.8% in private sector in terms of individual weighted received premium (WRP). We clocked 40% growth in terms of the value of a new business and we achieved a New Business Margin of 26.2% in Q1.”

In the quarter gone by, the company witnessed a steep rise in death claims, with peak claims in wave 2 at around 3-4 times of the peak claim volumes in the first wave.

“We paid over 70,000 claims in Q1. The gross and net claims provided for amounted to Rs 1,598 crore and Rs 956 crore respectively. Based on our current claims experience, we have set up an additional reserve of Rs 700 crore to service the claims intimations expected to be received,” the insurance major said in a release.

With signs of the second wave receding, over the past month, HDFC Life has seen a gradual pick-up in economic activity, across parts of the country.

“We see greater customer engagement and an increased interest in life insurance policies,” it said.