Insurance sector attracted Rs 54,000 crore FDI in last 9 years: DFS Secretary

The insurance sector has received close to Rs 54,000 crore as foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last 9 years on the back of further liberalisation of overseas capital flow norms by the government, Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi has said. The government increased the permissible FDI limit from 26 per cent in 2014 to 49 per cent in 2015 and then to 74 per cent in 2021, he told PTI in an interview.

However, he said, the permissible FDI limit for insurance intermediaries was increased to 100 per cent in 2019.

As a result, Rs 53,900 crore of FDI was received in insurance companies between December 2014 and January 2024, he said.

During the period, Joshi said, the number of insurance players increased from 53 to 70 as of January 2024.

Insurance penetration increased from 3.9 per cent in 2013-14 to 4 per cent in 2022-23 while insurance density rose from USD 52 in 2013-14 to USD 92 in 2022-23, he said.

Insurance penetration and density are two metrics, among others, often used to assess the level of development of the insurance sector in a country. While insurance penetration is measured as the percentage of insurance premium to GDP, insurance density is calculated as the ratio of premium to population (per capita premium). Asset Under Management nearly tripled to Rs 60.04 lakh crore as compared to Rs 21.07 lakh crore in 2013-14, while the total insurance premium more than doubled to Rs 10.4 lakh crore from Rs 3.94 lakh crore at the end of March 2014.

The insurance sector was opened for private players in August 2000 with the invitation for application for registrations. Foreign companies were allowed ownership of up to 26 per cent.

Since then, many foreign companies have invested in the insurance sector. The latest Zurich Insurance-Kotak General Insurance deal could be one of the major FDI flows in the insurance sector.

Last month, Zurich Insurance had said, it proposes to acquire a 70 per cent stake in Kotak Mahindra General Insurance, for Rs 5,560 crore, in a single tranche.

In November 2023, Kotak Mahindra Bank had announced the sale of a 51 per cent stake in its general insurance arm to Zurich Insurance for Rs 4,051 crore through a combination of fresh capital infusion and share purchase, followed by a 19 per cent stake sale within a period of three years.

The proposed 70 per cent acquisition would be subject to fulfilment of customary conditions precedent, including the receipt of regulatory approvals from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai).