While Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) may still hold a large chunk of the life insurance business maintaining its number one position, but private insurers, specially the ones which have a banking arm, seem to be collecting the maximum premium on a single policy.

According to data given by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), Life Insurance Corporation of India collected first year premium for the financial year 2006-2007 to the tune of Rs 55,935 crore by selling a total of 3.8 crore policies bringing its average premium per policy to Rs 14,631. LIC ranks last at number 14 (amongst 16 players in the market) in its

average premium collected per policy.

Topping the list of average premium per policy was SBI Life Insurance, which collected Rs 45,361 per policy while it collected only Rs 2,566 crore coming fourth in the total premium collected. Says Dr Rajas Parchure, professor, National Insurance Academy, “Insurers having a banking arm use their banking customer base to tap the high net worth individuals which pay huge premiums for their life insurance policies”.

Next in line was Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance, which collected an average premium per policy to the tune of Rs 37,223 crore. However, its rank in the total number of premiums collected was 11, while in the total number of policies sold, it ranked 12.

HDFC Standard Life was ranked third in the average premium per policy collected while it came at number five in the total amount of premium collected. ICICI Prudential which is the largest private player ranked fifth in average premium per policy while its over all position in the market share is after LIC. Bajaj Allianz came ninth in average premium collected while is third in the market share.