Non-life insurers’ underwriting losses surge 50% to Rs 45,279 cr | Insurance News
India’s non-life insurance’s saw a sharp widening in underwriting losses to Rs 45,279 crore in the financial year 2025-26 (FY26). On a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis, it was nearly 50 per cent higher than the Rs 30,288 crore in FY25. At the same time, the gross direct premium income by non-life insurers rose almost 9 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 3.36 trillion in the year after the Goods & Services Tax (GST) rate rationalisation.
According to industry data, the deterioration was particularly severe among the four state-owned general insurers. The underwriting loss of public sector multi-line general insurers was nearly 58.3 per cent higher Y-o-Y, up to Rs 29,070.57 crore in the financial year 2025-26 (FY26). Among them, United India Insurance’s losses saw steepest rise of 113 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 8,335.7 crore while Oriental Insurance saw an 84 per cent increase to Rs 7307.77 crore. The leader – New India Assurance – saw its underwriting losses rise 44 per cent to Rs 8,801.9 crore while National Insurance saw the lowest rise in underwriting losses among PSU general insurers of nearly 6 per cent to Rs 4,625.16 crore.
In that period, New India Assurance was the state-owned general insurer to have seen an increase in net profit to Rs 1,384 crore in FY26, up 40.1 per cent from Rs 988 crore in FY25. The remaining three public sector entities — Oriental Insurance, National Insurance, and United India Insurance — continued to post losses.
For private general insurers, the cumulative underwriting loss in FY26 grew by 18.9 per cent to reach Rs 16,682.34 crore compared to Rs 14,033.31 crore in FY25. Among the top multi-line general insurers, Tata AIG General Insurance posted the highest loss among private general insurers at Rs 2,442.25 crore in the year which was 9.5 per cent up from last year. ICICI Lombard’s underwriting loss widened nearly 18 per cent YoY to Rs 1,023.63 crore. Bajaj General Insurance delivered the best performance in terms of underwriting discipline, maintaining the lowest loss of Rs 103.29 crore in FY26. HDFC ERGO trimmed its underwriting losses by Rs 392.94 crore from Rs 1,435.83 crore in FY25 to Rs 1,042.89 crore in FY26.
Meanwhile, standalone health insurers posted 63 per cent Y-o-Y underwriting losses to Rs 2,666.84 crore in FY26 compared to Rs 1,635.25 crore in FY25
Among prominent standalone health insurers, Care Health Insurance Ltd posted the highest underwriting loss in FY26 at Rs 660.13 crore, representing a steep loss expansion of 101.3 per cent from Rs 328.00 crore in FY25. Niva Bupa Health Insurance Co Ltd followed with an underwriting loss of Rs 467.66 crore in FY26, an increase of 87.2 per cent. Meanwhile, Star Health & Allied Insurance Co Ltd saw 10.6 per cent increase in underwriting loss to Rs 418.54 crore in FY26 from Rs 378.50 crore in FY25.
