Mr. Keki Mistry - Chairman’s Speech at HDFC Life’s 24 th Annual General Meeting in Mumbai on 15 th July 2024.

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Life Insurance Industry Let me now come to the life insurance industry. The life insurance industry in India grew by 2% both in terms of new business premium as well as number of policies during FY24. Private Insurers grew by 12% on premium basis and 9% in terms of number of policies during the year. The new business premiums of Indian life insurers reached a record high of Rs 3.78 Lakh crore for the year ending March 2024.

Opportunity for Life Insurance in India  According to Swiss Re, India is one of the fastest growing insurance markets in the world and is forecasted to be the 6th largest market by 2032 ahead of Germany, Canada and South Korea. Currently, we are the 10th largest insurance market.  Being a largely under-insured market, India has huge potential for growth. The overall life insurance penetration in India is fairly low at 3.2%.  Given the low insurance penetration in the country, expansion into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities is expected to further drive growth. In the past couple of years, the regulator has been driving the objective of “Insurance for All by 2047”.

Some of the noteworthy regulatory initiatives include: 1. Increased commercial and operational flexibility due to Expenses of Management 2. Increased limits of raising sub debt 3. The Bima Trinity of Vistaar, Vahak and Sugam 4. Introduction of state level insurance committees and 5. Allowing insurers to open new branches without needing prior approval of the regulator and more recently, offering increased payouts in case of early policy surrenders by customers. IRDAI may also consider implementing a risk-based supervision model, like in the banking industry.

It will lay down principles for management of operational, market and governance risk; and the insurance companies will be responsible for monitoring the same. These regulations would increase ease of doing business, encourage development of longer- term products, and improve persistency, thereby creating value for customers. HDFC Life Performance Update During the year, your Company recorded a growth of 11% on a normalized basis, and a growth of 1% on an unadjusted WRP basis. Growth in ticket sizes up to Rs. 5 lakh was a robust 19% in FY 24.