On the back of strong performance by public sector insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), new premium collection of life insurers showed a 60 per cent jump in April 2010 compared with the same month a year ago.

New premium collection by LIC almost doubled to Rs 4,173 crore in April 2010 compared with Rs 2,113 crore a year ago. In contrast, private life insurers showed a meagre 6 per cent jump in premium collection over the past one year.

Largest private life insurer ICICI Prudential Life Insurance registered a 124 per cent growth in new premium collection from Rs 134 crore in April 2009 to Rs 304 crore in April 2010.

SBI Life saw a 60 per cent drop in premium collection. The drop was mainly on account of poor premium collection from group policies. The group premium collection of the insurer dropped from Rs 340 crore in April 2009 to Rs 78 crore in April 2010.

Among other large private life insurers, Bajaj Allianz’s new premium collection remained static in April compared with the same period a year ago, while HDFC Standard Life saw a healthy 65 per cent growth in premium from Rs 99 crore in April 2009 to Rs 163 crore in April 2010.

Meanwhile, general life insurance companies — barring standalone health insurers — saw premium underwritten for April grow by 18 per cent to Rs 4,400 crore compared with the same month a year ago.

Public sector general insurers’ premium collection grew by 20 per cent during the period against 15.41 per cent growth registered by private general insurers.

Premium collected by standalone health insurers — Apollo Munich, Star Health and Allied Insurance and MAX Bupa — grew 52 per cent to Rs 223 crore in April 2010.