Update, 12 October 2026 (H1 FY27 data): IRDAI’s statement for April-September 2026 changes this picture. In July-September (Q2), LIC grew first-year premium 27.9% against private insurers’ 19.9%, and LIC’s share of the quarter rose to 57.5% from 55.9% a year earlier, mainly on group single premium. For the half-year, LIC’s share was 58.8%, against 59.4% a year earlier. IRDAI’s later statements also removed a June group-term entry of ₹457.5 crore by IndiaFirst Life. On the restated figures, Q1 premium grew 16.1% (not 16.6%), private insurers grew 26.2% (not 27.5%), LIC’s Q1 share was 60.3%, and Q1 cover per ₹1 of premium was about ₹36, not ₹38. In Q2, cover per ₹1 fell to about ₹27, and the number of individual policies sold fell 1.0% from a year earlier. Source: IRDAI, First year premium of Life Insurers as at 30.06.2026 and 30.09.2026.
Cheat sheet
- LIC still writes 60.1% of new life-insurance premium, but that is down from 63.5% a year ago, a loss of 3.4 percentage points in four quarters.
- Private insurers grew first-year premium 27.5% (to ₹43,523 crore) against LIC’s 10.3%. They also wrote 12.7% more policies, against LIC’s 2%.
- SBI Life is the largest private insurer by first-year premium (₹8,905 crore) and grew fastest of the three largest private insurers (22.6%), extending a lead it has held for years.
- ICICI Prudential edges SBI on profitability: a 26.7% VNB margin against SBI’s 26.2%. SBI’s margin slipped from 27.4% a year ago.
- Cover per rupee is rising, not cheaper: new sum assured rose 46.6% while premium rose 16.6%, so ₹1 of premium now buys about ₹38 of cover, up from ₹30. Almost all the extra cover came from group yearly-renewable term schemes; cover in the group single premium line, where credit life sits, fell 11.7%.
- Q2 reversed part of this: see the October update above.
SBI Life reported its first-quarter results for FY27 on July 24, and they make for good reading. Profit after tax is up 22% to ₹720 crore, value of new business (VNB) 29% to ₹1,410 crore, and its VNB margin is 26.2% (SBI Life investor presentation, quarter ended 30 June 2026).
But the more interesting story sits in a different document. On IRDAI’s new-business statement for the same quarter, India’s life insurers collected ₹1.09 lakh crore of first-year premium in April-June, up 16.6%. LIC still leads by far, at 60.1% of the market. A year ago that share was 63.5%, so 3.4 percentage points have changed hands in four quarters.
Private insurers grew premium 27.5% to ₹43,523 crore, while LIC grew 10.3% to ₹65,549 crore. The gap shows in policy volumes too: private insurers wrote 12.7% more policies than a year ago, LIC just 2%. On growth rates, private is ahead on both counts: the rupees collected and the number of families reached.
Among the private insurers, SBI Life kept its lead intact. Its ₹8,905 crore of first-year premium was the most of any private player, ahead of HDFC Life’s ₹8,433 crore, and extends a lead it has held for years.
SBI Life sets the private pace
SBI Life’s annualised premium equivalent (APE) grew 36% to ₹5,380 crore. APE is the yardstick insurers use to compare sales on a like-for-like basis: it counts the full annual premium on a regular policy (like the ones you and I buy), but only a tenth of a single-premium policy (mostly bought by companies as group cover), as a way to annualise the lump sum. That is the largest APE among the private majors, and the fastest-growing: HDFC Life wrote ₹3,520 crore (up 9%) and ICICI Prudential ₹2,136 crore (up 14.6%).
On value of new business, too, SBI Life leads, up 29%, against ICICI Prudential’s 24.9% and HDFC Life’s 11%. VNB measures the present value of the future profit a year’s new policies are expected to earn. The margins, though, sit closer together: SBI at 26.2%, ICICI at 26.7%, HDFC at about 25%. SBI’s margin actually fell, from 27.4% a year ago to 26.2%, so it may have bought some of that fast growth by giving a little away on price. For where each insurer really earns its money, see our product-mix breakdown.
The difference in the counts
SBI’s growth looks different depending on where you read it: first-year premium up 22.6% on IRDAI’s count, but APE up 36% in its own results. The difference is a counting convention. IRDAI records a single premium in full; APE counts it at a tenth, to put one-time and recurring sales on the same annual footing. SBI’s new business leaned toward regular-premium policies, so it shows up larger in APE than in the raw premium line. Neither number is wrong; they answer different questions, which is worth remembering whenever an insurer’s growth rate seems to depend on who is doing the counting.
The better news is for buyers
The most encouraging number in the quarter is already in, and it has nothing to do with who is ahead. New cover across the industry rose 46.6% while premium rose just 16.6%, so every ₹1 of premium now buys about ₹38 of life cover, against roughly ₹30 a year ago. This is not cheaper insurance; premiums have not fallen. It is a shift in the mix. Almost all the new cover came from group yearly-renewable term schemes (sum assured in that line rose 86.8%), which are high on sum assured and low on premium. Cover in the group single premium line, where credit life sits, fell 11.7%. (Group single premium also carries LIC’s large group fund business, which has almost no cover at all.) The figure a family buys on its own is far lower. But retail protection is beginning to pick up, with ICICI Prudential’s retail protection APE up 60.4%.
Read your own policies the same way. What matters is not the premium you pay each year, but the sum assured your family would receive if you died. The two are often further apart than buyers assume.
A single quarter is not a trend, and the next three will show whether it holds. But the direction is worth marking. LIC still leads the premium table, and will for a long time, though its share is down 3.4 points from a year ago. This quarter the private pace was set by SBI Life, and the business worth writing, protection and non-par savings at around 26% margins, is being written in the private insurers’ books. If you are the one paying the premium, that competition is the best news in the data: the insurers fighting hardest for your money are, for once, the ones offering more cover for it.
Frequently asked questions
Did LIC lose market share in the June 2026 quarter?
Yes, on new business. LIC’s share of first-year premium was 60.1% in April-June 2026 (Q1 FY27), down from 63.5% a year earlier, a fall of 3.4 percentage points. LIC still writes more new premium than all private insurers combined, but private insurers grew faster (27.5% against LIC’s 10.3%).
Which is the largest private life insurer in India?
By first-year premium, SBI Life: ₹8,905 crore in Q1 FY27, ahead of HDFC Life (₹8,433 crore) and ICICI Prudential (₹4,866 crore), which IRDAI lists as ICICI Life Insurance from 22 September 2026. For April-September 2026, SBI Life still led, with ₹20,255 crore against HDFC Life’s ₹19,571 crore. SBI Life also led HDFC Life over the full years FY25 and FY26, and the gap widened.
Does “more cover per rupee” mean life insurance got cheaper?
No. Premiums did not fall. The industry’s sum-assured-to-premium ratio rose because the mix shifted toward high-cover, low-premium group term schemes. For an individual buying a retail policy, the cover per rupee is far lower than the industry-wide ₹38, though retail protection is slowly growing.
Based on IRDAI’s New Business Statement of Life Insurers for the period ended 30 June 2026, full-year statements as at 31 March 2025 and 31 March 2026, and the Q1 FY27 investor presentations of SBI Life, ICICI Prudential Life and HDFC Life.