Indian insurance stocks drop on report of regulatory concerns over dependence on parent banks

Sbi Life Insurance

28/11/2024 09:09

** Indian insurance stocks HDFC Life  HDFL.NS , SBI Life
 SBIL.NS  and Max Financial  MAXI.NS  fall ~6% each
    ** SBIL, HDFL top Nifty 50  .NSEI  laggards by pct
        ** IRDAI, India's insurance regulator, may consider
putting a cap of 50% on insurers' parent bank's share to
insurers' total bancassurance business, CNBC-TV18 
    reports
    , citing sources
  
    ** Bancassurance refers to arrangement between a bank and
insurer, allowing the latter to sell its products to bank's
clients
    ** IRDAI did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests
for comment
    ** HDFL, Max Life derive about 60%-70% of their annual
premium equivalent (APE) from bancassurance, mainly through
their parent banks
    ** ICICI Prudential Life  ICIR.NS  only has 29% APE in
bancassurance, while Life Insurance Corp of India  LIFI.NS  has
a bancassurance exposure of just 4%
    ** LIFI shares up 1.8%, while ICIR rises 0.7%  
    ** Indian finance minister and IRDAI chairperson had advised
banks to resolve issues in bancassurance practices to prevent
mis-selling

 (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru)
 ((bharath.rajeswaran@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9769003463;))