February 29: The business of life insurance companies increased in the Nepali month of Magh (mid-January to mid-February), but that of non-life companies decreased. According to the data of Nepal Insurance Authority, life insurance companies collected Rs 12.66 billion insurance fees from the sale and renewal of new insurance policies in the review month. The insurance premiums of life insurance companies increased by Rs 190 million in mid-January to mid-February compared to the previous month.

In mid-January to mid-February, life insurance companies issued a total of 448,000 insurance policies and collected Rs 2.29 billion as the first installment of insurance fee. Similarly, the authority informed that the life insurance companies collected Rs 10.36 billion in insurance fee from the renewal of insurance policies.

As of mid-February of the current fiscal year, the number of active life insurance policies is 103.7 million. The life insurance companies have collected Rs 86.88 billion in insurance fees from the 103.7 million clients. In the same period last year, the companies had collected Rs 83.39 billion in insurance fees.

Similarly, the business of non-life insurance companies, which showed some growth in mid-December to mid-January of the current fiscal year, slowed down in mid-January to mid-February. In the review month, they issued 250,000 insurance policies and collected Rs 2.99 billion in insurance fees. In mid-December to mid-January, they collected Rs 3.67 billion.

As of mid-February of the current year, non-life insurance companies have issued 16,71,000 insurance policies and collected more than Rs 22.39 billion. By the same period last year, the companies had collected more than Rs 23.6 billion by issuing 16,36,000 insurance policies. Although the number of insurance policies has increased compared to last year, the insurance fee has decreased.

The business of insurance companies has been affected due to the decline in economic activities. As the credit flow of banks and financial institutions has decreased, economic activities have also been affected. Of late, insurers say that with the excess liquidity in the banks and the flexible monetary policy of the central bank, the insurance business has also started to improve.