The number of branches operated by life insurers across India has come down by over 10% in last two years, primarily because of branch closures by private players even as state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) expanded its footprint.
The total number of branches or offices operated by private life insurers stood at 6,759 at the end of FY’13, down by 1,416 branches from the level of 8,175 branches two years ago on March 31, 2011.
During the same period, public sector player LIC’s network grew by 155 to 3,526 offices as on March 31, 2013.
Despite LIC’s expanded network, the cumulative number of offices for all life insurers fell by 1,261 in last two financial years to 10,285 as on March 31, 2013, as a number of big private players, including ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Allianz Life and HDFC Standard Life, cut down on their branch network.
The number of branches operated by private life insurers declined by 950 during FY’13 alone, while 463 branches were closed during FY’12.
The business for many life insurers has been stressed for last couple of years and could be a possible reason behind closure of branches.
The number of offices operated by ICICI Prudential declined by 845 branches between FY’10-11 and FY’12-13, while Bajaj Allianz witnessed a reduction of 110 branches in its network during the same period.
HDFC Standard Life and Reliance Life also saw their branch network declining by 48 and 18, respectively.
The few private players that witnessed an increase in number of offices in last two financial years are Birla Sun Life, IDBI, IndiaFirst, Sahara, Shriram Life and Star Union Dai-Ichi Life.
While LIC has expanded its branch network in last two years, the number of its agents has declined in this period from about 13.37 lakh to nearly 11.73 lakh as on March 31, 2013.
vinay mohanty
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