Covid puts limelight on life firms’ protection products

Life insurance companies need to incr ease the sha re of pr otection p roducts in their por tfolio to impr ove their margins for the rest of the cur rent financial y ear ending March as the co ronav irus pandemic ra ges on, say analysts.

HDFC Life Insurance Co Ltd, SBI L ife I nsurance Co Ltd, and I CICI Life Insurance Co Ltd, which declared their ear nings on Tuesda y, reported a 1-6% rise in ne t profits on year.

Brokerages ha ve r emained larg ely pos itive about SBI Life Insurance and ICICI P rudential Life but they are divided in their outlook for HDFC Life Insurance's stock rating.

Life in surance co mpanies were pos itive a bout incr easing the sha re of th e pr otection b usiness, w hich includes ter m insurance a nd annuities, as demand f or these products has increased due to the fear of COVID-19.

Analysts sa y t hat g rowth of the pr otection b usiness will be impor tant to improve marg ins, as the de - mand for par ticipating and unit-linked insurance , or market-linked pr oducts, falls due to volatile markets.

The I nsurance R egulatory and Development Authority of India has allowed general and standalone health insurance companies to sell 'Cor ona Ka vach' as a group insurance policy.

Earlier, the regulator had asked insurers to of fer the policy as a standardised insurance co ver f or CO VID19 to ind ividuals and families.

The minimum s um insured was to be 50,000 r upees and the maximum 500,000 rupees.

Citing the una bated spread of COVID-19 in the country, the insurance re gulator said on Tuesday that organisations can sup port their employees with Corona Kavach.

According to a cir cular by the insurance regulator, the polic y can be of fered for durations of three-anda-half months , six-and -ahalf months, and nine-anda-half months.