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SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd
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Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the SBI Life Insurance Company Limited Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]
Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Mahesh Kumar Sharma, MD and CEO, SBI Life Insurance. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone, and we welcome you all to the results update call of SBL Life Insurance for the year ended March 31, 2023. The update on our financial results can be accessed on our website as well as on the website of both the stock exchanges. Along with me, I have S. Veeraraghavan, Deputy CEO; Sangramjit Sarangi, President and CFO; Ravi Krishnamurthy, President; Abhijit Gulanikar, President, Business Strategy; Subhendu Bal, Chief Actuary and Chief Risk Officer; Prithesh Chaubey, Appointed Actuary; and Smita Verma, SVP Financial and Investor Relations.
Today's numbers are the direct outcome of the scale, quality and of the SBI Life business across the regions and the fundamental requirement of maintaining high-quality, consistent and sustainable business model.
Now let me give some key highlights for the financial year 2023. New business premium registered a growth of 16% over the previous year and stands at INR 295.9 billion, leading to private market leadership. Individual new business premium stands at INR 209.1 billion, with a strong growth of 27% and private market share of 24.3%. Gross written premium stands at INR 673.2 billion with a growth of 15%. Production new business premium grew by 19% to INR 36.4 billion. Profit after tax stands at INR 17.2 billion with 14% growth over last year. Value of new business is INR 50.7 billion, registered a strong growth of 37% over the INR 37 billion in March 2022. VNB margin is at 30.1% with an improvement of 420 bps over 25.9% in March 2022. Embedded value stands at INR 460.4 billion, registering a growth of 16% over the INR 396.3 billion in March 2020. Embedded value operating earnings stands at INR 90.5 billion, and operating return on embedded value stands at 22.8%.
Assets under management grew by 15% to INR 3.07 trillion. Robust solvency ratio of 2.15 against the regulatory requirement of 1.5. I will now update you on each of these elements in detail. So let me start with the premium individual new business premium has grown to INR 209.1 billion, with Y-o-Y growth of 27%. Single premium contribution is 30% of individual new business which is mainly attributed to growth in our individual annuity product. The company gained private market share by 92 basis points to 24.3%. On individual rated new business stand at INR 152.2 billion with a growth of 18% over the previous year, while maintaining our leadership position with private market share of 22.3%. Group new business stands at INR 86.8 billion with a share of 29% in new business figures. We have collected total new business premium of INR 295.9 billion, registering private market share of 21.3%. But premium grew by 13% to INR 377.3 billion, which accounts for 56% of the gross written premiums.
To sum up, gross written premium stands at INR 603.2 billion with a Y-o-Y growth of 15%. In terms of APE, premium stands at INR 168.1 billion with a growth of 18%. Out of this, individual APE stands at INR 153.8 billion with a growth of 19%. During the year ended March 31, 2023, total 31.98 lakh new policies were issued and registered a growth of 14% over the previous year. Since 2010, the company has maintained its leadership position in a number of and consistently delivered year-on-year growth for the last 10 years. This reflects the clear goal of the company to increase the situation and achieve holistic growth. Individual new business a growth of 13% over the corresponding last year as compared to growth of 12% at private industry level. Let me give you details about the product mix.
As of March '23, our guaranteed sales products are contributing 18% of individual new business. And on individual APE basis, this comes to 24%. Non-par guaranteed product new business has registered Y-o-Y growth of 116%, mainly due to the new business contribution of Smart Platina Plus of INR 37.35 billion in the year ending March, 31, 2023. Individual unit new business premium is at INR 111.4 billion, which now costs 53% of the individual new business premium. Individual protection new business premium is at INR 10.10 billion, registering a Y-o-Y growth of 6%. Group production stands at INR 26.4 billion with a growth of 25%, new business grown 23% that stands at INR 20.7 billion.
On APE basis, protection contributes 11% of new business and registered growth of 16%. Annuity business is at INR 49.7 billion and contributed 17% of new business premium. Under the company is offering immediate as well as deferment Individual annuity even growing at 174% over last year, mainly due to the new business contribution of smart annuity plus of INR 38.1 billion. Total annuity in pension new business underwritten by the company is at INR 84.2 billion, registering a growth of 16% over the same period last year.
Insights from the distribution partners, with strength of more than 58,000 CIS. SBI and RRB Bancassurance business contributes a share of 67% and grew by 31% in the individual new business premium. And on individual APE basis, it stands at INR 104.2 billion with a growth of 19.3%. Agency, one of the strongest channels registered new business premium growth of 19% and contributes 19% in the new business premium. Agency channel individual APE stands at INR 42.3 billion with a growth of 15%.
As of March 31, 2023, the total number of agents stands at 208,774 , a growth of 43% over the previous year. During the year, the company added a net of 62,717 agents. During the year ended March 31, 2023 other channels, including direct corporate agents, brokers, online and grew by 44% in terms of individual new business premium and 32% in individual APE. Protection new business premium through other registered growth of 25%.
Partnerships like Indian Bank, UCO Bank, South Indian Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank and Yes Bank registered a growth of 26% in individual new business premium. These partnerships have contributed 3% of the individual new business premium. During last quarter, we signed corporate agency agreement with Karur Vysya Bank. We are confident that these partnerships will further enable us to expand the insurance market across the country. On profitability, the company's profit after tax year ended March 31, 2023 stands at INR 17.2 billion with 14% growth y-o-y. For the month of March, the company had declared and paid an interim dividend of INR 2.5 per share. Our solvency ratio remains strong at 215% as of March 31, 2023. We are happy to share that we have more than doubled the in the of 3 years. Value of those businesses INR 50.7 billion with growth of 37% as in the last year. Year ending margin is at 30.1% for the year ended March 31, 2023 as against 25.9% in the previous year, showing an improvement of 420 basis points.
Growth in VNB margin is driven by product -- change in product mix, predominantly in the non-par segment. value stands at INR 460.4 billion, a growth of 16% over the previous year. With our growth target and the product mix shift, we expect to maintain the healthy and sustainable growth rates. Coming to operational efficiency, our OpEx ratio stands at 5.1% for the year ended March 31, 2023. Our total cost ratio stands at 9.6% for the year ended March 31, 2023.
With respect to persistency of individual regular limited premium paying policy, 13-month persistency stands at 85.5%. The company has registered a significant improvement in the month and 60 persistency by 236 basis points and 612 basis points respectively. As mentioned the opening remarks, asset under management stands at INR 3.7 trillion as of March 31, 2023, having a growth of 15% as compared to March 31, 2022. The company continues its sufficient usage of technology for simplification of 99% of the individual proposals being submitted digitally. 45% of individual proposals through our automated
To conclude, we continuously endeavor to maintain our leadership portion and continue to further increase our market share, offering products that meet the evolving needs of our customers. With our widespread robust distribution network, complicated by digital technology, our innovation strength and above all, our people we are pleased to make the most of growth in evolving insurance sector. Company as well as other industry players are in line with the regulator mission of increasing penetration and offering insurance to all. Companies to advance enhancing the digital experiences of customers, distributors and employees and offer right products to the customers. Further, we will continue to explore new partners, leverage existing partnerships and launch new products that meet customer needs and provide customer experience.
Thank you very much for your patient hearing. And now we are happy to take any questions that you may have.
[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Avinash Singh from Emkay Global.
all across. A couple of questions. The first one is more around the growth outlook for FY '24 considering what has happened or what is happening around the regulatory front or and how you sort of a quarter 4 has gone by. So -- because if I recall correctly, last year, we started with a strong growth momentum, but growth to other So in the backdrop, some kind of directionally, the growth and margin trajectory for FY '20 I'm not going to see quarter-on-quarter. That's one. Second, again, more around your feed distribution channel, that's SBI. So now with all sort of a regulatory changes happening particularly on the front and all. So there's some kind of a doubt or question in mind about of the channel and also the kind of any sort of a payout if at all, that has sort of an impact on your either growth or margin trajectory.
Yes, thank you, Avinash. The growth outlook, if you ask me, we expect what we were expecting last year. So the growth will continue. and we will have a 20% to 25% growth this year also. So we ended up with slightly less than 20%, but then that is largely on the back of various other factors. But if you ask me, the outlook remains similar because the demand is there, insurance is a product which needs to be distributed. And with all the regulatory changes, I think it has become easier to create better products, distribute them across. And with all these regulations which the commission regulation changes that you have -- all these things will lead to creatively design products, which can be beneficial for both the customer and the distributor and obviously, for the company because that So we continue -- we look for -- we look to continue the trend of growth. And as far as the commission payouts, et cetera, are concerned, we will definitely be looking at all our distribution partners and how we can increase the distribution of insurance products. The regulator has a vision of insurance for all by 2037, but then the aspiration is that it should happen before that. And to do that, we need to actually expand the market. You will notice that we are probably one of the few companies which is actually selling more number of policies. So NOPs, if you look at the NOp growth, we have a very healthy NOP growth at 14%. And I don't believe anybody else has got a strong NOP growth, it's all mostly like -- in the industry, you see we are the ones which is growing the NOP. And on top of that, if you look at the kind of products that we are distributing and the principle behind our distribution, we keep the customer at the center. And therefore, anything that will be value accretive for the customer, which will be the guiding principle for us as always, the customer has to like the product, we have to lead the product and then we'll be distributing that. So obviously, every distributor will have expectations of some good returns for the distribution that they do. But then what we would like to see is that the value that we create for who actually sell products with -- based products to the right kind of customers with more persistency with where the value is created for the customer as well as for the company. So there, we may look at some kind of a new creative products which can then share a higher amount with some of the distributors. So that is something which we will be definitely looking at with the new flexibility that are available to us.
Okay. So SBI and SBI Life as it is?
Well, I -- what I would like to say is that, like I said, we will design products that will be good for the customer and which can be distributed well. And there is -- we see that the value is increasing, and we are able to penetrate the market much faster. Then obviously, will also be rewarded without losing the customers value proposition.
The next question is from the line of Supratim Datta from AMBIT Capital.
So let me start off on the protection side. So your individual protection, while overall for the year has grown for the quarter 4. It seems like it has declined slightly So could you tell us what's going on there? Because the other peers appear to be reporting a strong growth in the retail protection side. So just wanted to understand what's happening with SBI Life.
So our production has been growing year-on-year. So every year, we have grown. So this time, we have grown 6% for the year. Yes, you are right, quarter 4, we have seen a slight decrease of about 5%. But then if you look at the moved around the last quarter. So I think there was a little bit of a talk about tax and things like that. And therefore, there was some -- some of the things sell as much as the others, the focus definitely is on what is happening around people buying because customers should be thinking about it. But we feel that going forward, production being one of the areas which we feel is a very good product for the customer. So we will continue to have our focus on production. And that -- it's a win-win for everybody. The customer gets maximum protection for the minimum of outlay, and we also -- the value that it gives to the company is also good. So therefore, production focus will be there going forward. It's a good customer value proposition.
Second question from my side. So I understand the numbers, hasn't really benefited from the high ticket size, quality demand, which gives you a much cleaner base in FY '24. But from the government especially, it looks like you are also moving away from old tax regime to a new tax regime, which will have no deductions. So could you let us know what proportion of your customers will really be benefiting from the sector, and what could be the impact if that goes away?
Sorry, we don't know about how many customers are claiming Our only anecdotal thing is the of the insurance business is coming down every year. So ATC according to us is not such a big driver of insurance business as compared to past One of the other things is that earlier, there were only a few instruments which actually gave the ATC benefits. So that was a time when people used to either go for or -- and insurance policies. I think now the people are realizing the need for insurance and most of the people who buy insurance are people who want to buy insurance. So more and more, you will see people buying insurance because they want insurance and for insurance and not to save taxes. And there are many avenues for ATC But insurance is a unique product, which gives -- it is the only product which gives you insurance.
And last final one question. Could you let us know within your bucket, how many people side or ticket size of more than 2.5 lakhs and how many will be lower than 2.5 lakhs?
So right now, we don't have the information. I mean, I can't give you a information at this point. So I'll let this pass.
The next question is from the line of Shyam Srinivasan from Goldman Sachs.
Just the first 1 on we are not seeing any growth this fiscal year. And I'm looking at all 3 channels as well, which is the bank, agency, others, we have seen a decline. So also our significant overall has also come down. So I just want to understand the thought process around just being a top product? And how should we look at it for next year? .
So continues to be a very good product offering that we have. We have a very wide choice of products. And if you see, sir, it's flattish. At best if you see, it's not really a decline or something like that. It is rather flattish. But then you will also see that we have some other product offerings which we did have earlier. Like, for example, the smart and that has got very good traction last year. So -- and you know that the emphasis especially from some of the customers' side, given that the markets have not been setting on fire has been towards some kind of guaranteed products and the COVID effect is also there. A lot of people who are worried about the future. And so we would rather go for a guaranteed products. So is not a very large shift, but yes, there is a significant shift that we can see that is because we have these other products also. So the product range that we have, overall, we have a growth in our business, and it's only a question of interface, there has been some shifting here or there. But continues to be strong. And going forward, I don't see that we lose its relevance or something, it is a very good product. These are very good products that we have for various segments. And therefore, probably this year, we should see some growth in unit as well as, of course, the strong growth in other products.
Got it, sir. And my second question just is on the -- now the VNB margin at 30%. Can you comment a bit about the unit margins as well as, where are we tracking up and do we have further levers for margin expansion for next year, given that we not see growth in this product. So how should we think about margins for next year?
Margins, we feel that margins are a question of what the -- like I said, the customer value proposition. So really speaking, the margins are -- you can take margins reach up to a particular point, and that is as far as the margin growth is concerned. So we expect margins to be around these -- we will this for some time now. So it could be 29, it could be 30%. I'm really bothered about that because as far as -- as long as VNBs actually growing value, new business is growing. As far as my EV is growing, I'm not really bothered about the exact number that comes out there. To your question about ULIP, we have a significant positive margin for ULIPs, and we will continue to sell ULIPs profitably and also give a good value proposition to the customers.
Okay, sir. And last question just be very quick about it. You used to typically had like debt-to-equity ratio of 52%, 48% in this whole changes related to debt, mutual fund, indexation going away. That's just value proposition of the way we used to sell our product change going forward?
See, our -- what we have noticed is that our equity-to-debt in terms of ULIPs has actually increased. So we used to have 60% debt, 40 equity kind of thing. Now we are more like 50 to 48 in terms of equity-to-debt. So I think it's -- there are really some changes here, there depending on the time -- exact time when -- if the rates are going up or down or the markets are performing better or not. But given that we are giving very strong long-term returns on all our products in ULIP. I think the equity story is definitely likely to continue for something.
The next question is from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Nuvama Wealth.
So I see on a quarter-on-quarter basis, there is a lot of volatility in the product mix. So for example, the share of unit is about 51% in Q2, which went to about 65%, and it's back to about 52% in Q4. What exactly sort of has played out? Is it by designing that you operate in a certain way? Or I mean, I just want to understand better as to how you do your planning and what sort of products are actually -- how sales actually generated. And second I know that this question has been sort of asked before. But do you have any broad product looks in mind? And -- or are there any sort of limitations as to how much non-par you can sell. So that would help us understand what sort of product mix we should be modeling and where margins could actually come up at?
Yes, you said it right. It's an old question. I'll answer your second question first. It's an old question and I'll give an old answer, that we sell according to the customer need and not what to sell. So sometimes will be in demand. Sometimes our in demand. And as you will see, the proportions are largely in particular kind of range. And as we have said earlier, our non-par pickup was mainly on the back of a product, which we didn't have in the portfolio, which we introduced last year -- year before last impact in March. And actually worked very well for our customers. So that would be one of the things which you can see. ULIP, like I said, is a very good basket of products that we have. And these products will find favor with people who are aware of the financial markets, people who are looking for good returns, and we have given good returns in the past. And therefore, that demand is going to be there. We have a plan overall for the year, and it has played out largely according to our plan. So coming back to your volatility -- so that is that the whole thing. That is why the volatility that you may see a little bit of selling more here or there. So it will depend a lot seasonally, geographically, depending on where people are having the demand, where people get the money, where people are thinking of doing their investments, along with the insurance, we should not forget the insurance proposition in all these products. So that insurance we and then there is a sales along with it. And whichever way they want to take it, we are there to provide these products because we have all these products. And right now, we don't have any limitation to the amount of what we will sell. So non-par, I don't think I have a number limit on how much I'm going to sell non-par.
Understood. And you mentioned that you're targeting 20%, 25% APE growth. Would you say that your VNB would also track that kind of growth number?
Obviously. So the VNB is definitely a product of volume. One of the things is volume, one of the things is the product. So obviously, VNB is going to be there.
The next question is from the line of Dipanjan Ghosh from Citi.
A few questions from my side. First, if you could just take up the investment variance number into the subparts for the year. Second, if I look at your real-world assumptions over the last few years as a percentage of your investments, it seems that from FY 2021 onwards, it has increased a bit. So I just wanted to get some idea of how confident are you on some of these assumptions. And lastly, on your non-SBI banker partnerships, if you can give some color on the that you have across some of these open architecture partners? And how do you intend to scale those partnerships up over medium term?
Yes. So I'll take your last question first. As far as the non-SBI partners are concerned, they are growing. The bases are smaller, but the growth is good. The need is there. The customers are there. And they are the ones who need insurance and they have not bought insurance earlier. Obviously, this is the time to sell insurance to them. And I think a lot of the partners are also seeing the need to provide all the financial services to their customers. And this is an opportunity for them to increase their stickiness also. And also to provide a customers with a need, which otherwise, we would have to satisfy from some other So that is likely to grow and continue to grow. And we would also like to have new partnerships as we have already said. We are in new partners, and we are doing pretty well in terms of the existing partnerships that we have, and we will continue to grow those partnerships, especially because the customers are there, they need the products. So that is the answer to the third question. Now coming back to 1 and 2, I'll request Prithesh to give you a color on those numbers.
On your other question where you're referring to the real word basically, you're looking to the unwinding rate, I think we see the unwinding rate is basically expected portfolio, portfolio which is a concern of basically composition of your portfolio and So if you look into that, in the recent 3 years, what you're referring to, we are moving our competition also going towards the non-par business. So there is a mix coming in, which is longer duration. And you also see also going up. This year, you see the expected unwinding But you can see -- if you compares sales, so '21 7.85. Last year, it's 8.17. This year, 8.0. You see the composition is increasing and that the So we are very sure that what we are assuming is no exemption coming if you have an actual portfolio, So there is no assumption that we need to be worried about. Coming back to the economic variance, I think referring to, which is around [indiscernible] I think in my view, we should -- if we are start showing economic variance, I think you will be asking more questions. If I'm showing you should be asking more questions. Because it's a real reality. If you see today, there is a lot of economic volatility and this is volatility really reflecting to the into this economic variance. Nothing -- we should not worry on those things. We should worry more about the aspects and cash flow making perspective.
Just 1 small follow-up on the second question. Just wanted to get some idea on where you have changed your expected equity and assumptions for the bank book.
No, no. Nothing.
We have the next question from the line of Sahej Mittal from HDFC Securities.
[indiscernible]
[Operator Instructions] The next question will be from the line of Sanketh Godha from Spark.
It was reflected in also FY '23, how much sensitivity to the interest rate seems to have gone up because that number in FY '22 was less than 2 percentage. Today, it is 4 percentage -- closer to 4%. And if I look along also the economic variance number, which is almost 6 percentage of the opening which for others who have the number is less than 4%. Sir, just wanted to understand, it seems that we have as well as the company has become more sensitive to the macro requirement compared to peers, is it to do anything with respect to the hedging what we are using or something we need to read in between these numbers
I think the economic variance I've already explained. The sensitivity -- this increase is happening only on an account of the net worth. So if you see that we have a net worth and net worth is -- there is no corresponding So you see the sensibility is going up. We also look into that, we are writing some more manpower I covered things. Now what is that in manpower [indiscernible] than the base liability. And there you have the assets. So this asset will have some volatility in some of the interest rate. And also, you rightly said that we are So our objective is to do the cash flow matching, which is a real world matching, that we try to do that. In that process, you do hedging, and then we will get some economic So I would -- just to give a that because it is a product of 2 things, one is that we're trying to as much as close hedging in the real world so that our economic balance sheet and real balance sheet would have to get impacted. And secondly, in terms of the excess net worth, which is not having given some of the higher sensitivity. So there's no -- we should not worry about the asset liability matching very perfectly matched, and liability is adequately
Sir, just a follow-up to it because of the net worth issue was even there in FY '22, but the sensitivity was this 2%, it has almost doubled in the current year. Actually, the concern comes from there. I understand that net worth doesn't have any liabilities and they are exposed and the market impact those investments. But given the number has doubled compared to the last year so -- on a bigger base, so the reason I was just trying to understand. .
So let me explain these -- what's happened we look into both the part 1 is the portfolio mix. So in non-par portfolio, when you're writing non-par portfolio, you are having the more than asset equal to liability and you are having -- we have to do any In case of products, you keep assets to manage those restructuring liability. And this excess that we're keeping as part of balance sheet, this giving higher sensitivity. Nothing else. So this is just...
Can you quantify the excess assets in the non-par book, how much portion we have.
See, it is because -- what happen there is a liability, there is a requirement that you work out -- we put some So if you're writing higher margin for additional and then there is a regulatory requirement you need to derive and other aspects. So this, we've to quantify. So I would quantify that.
Got it. And the last one, on margin, as you know, that as you went fourth quarter, you changed the with respect to operation. So that led to 80 bps improvement in the margin. So sir, I just wanted to understand is 80 bps, what was the biggest contributing factor, whether it was OpEx or persistency or something else led to that additional benefit?
So it is a mix of -- what happens if you see this in all operating fronts that you can see on my economic we made -- operating variance in all the fronts the mortality, the expenses and the persistency. What we did that -- so we -- some part of those we have capitalized. So in this 80 basis point, there is some element of the expenses. Some element of the persistency and some elements coming from the insurance side because we get a better on the insurance, that we have included. So that's the reason we get 80 basis points on the
Got it, sir. And last one. See, we reported 30% margin based on 72% nonpower mix. Sir, is it fair to assume that going ahead, not to significantly deviate from our margin guidance, is the non-par contribution to remain in this range? Or are you expecting it to come down or go up if demand picks up. I know you answered this question, sir. But just wanted to understand that still we try to toggle the business so that non-par will continue to contribute around 22 plus kind of a number.
I understand your to understand the whole way the margin will go up or remain the same or whatever. But we don't have a magic crystal ball to see that thing. What I have said is still stand. We will sell the products if the customers want. These are products which the customers really seem to like. The ULIP products, the non-par guaranteed products that we have, we have some very good production products, products. So the mix will change slightly here and there, and I'm not going to be able to guarantee to you that this will be at some particular percentage or the other. So if that will answer your question.
The next question is from the line of Neeraj Toshniwal from UBS India.
In the opening remarks, you mentioned that 20% or shy of 20% APE growth because of some factors beyond your control. I wanted to know what were those factors and how confident we are on delivering for the coming year or for FY '22 rather.
I can't single factor or anything. There are many multiple things that have been taking place. So as a company, we try to grow. And if you can see my force, my force has increased a lot this year. And we are -- like if you ask me, there are a lot of development things that we are doing. And based on that, we feel that going forward, we will be able to achieve this 20% to 25% that we are looking for.
Sir, my question is more strategy because the bank growth has been very, very if I look at the numbers. Has focus has been on the deposits or how should 1 think about it? Because obviously, if you -- quarter 4 last year also was weaker, but this time on a lower is a weak outcome. So anything to read there?
So I look at the business as a whole year kind of thing. There are seasonal variations. There are variations geographically and all. I won't read too much into all these. 19% growth is very strong, while it is on the kind of base that we have, a 19% growth and then to keep a margin of 30.1% on the value of new business and to grow new business, VNB by how much, is it, 37%? 37% and the EV by 14%. I think all these things are a very good indicator of growth and I mean I can always look at a particular 1 week or something and say that this business was not there or went up or down or whatever one of those things that you will see. But there is growth in March and it's a minor point here or there, it's been probably not as spectacular as we have been able to grow earlier. But then that is also a factor of what happened last year. So the growth over March last year. So March was good, then obviously, we don't expect spectacular growth over that all the time. But overall, I would still say that my own idea is that we -- with all the things that we are doing in the company, we should be seeing 20% to 25% growth.
Got it. And on going back to back, how much would this coming from group savings because that would be largely properly or I might has moved to business what we do. So any color on that.
Which one?
On sensitivity, I wanted to know what has been the contribution or the group savings business.
So not much. I think we don't look at line of business, right? So basically, our objective is to look into in totality. Since we have the balance total similar thing, and we try to manage that in -- so in group, particularly you're referring to, we fully match our asset to the liability. And there is no -- not much sensibility coming from.
Got it. And on the credit life, do you have the numbers handy, how much would have been the share of credit life within the group?
Yes, that I can give you. Credit life...
In terms of
INR 200 crores.
And what corresponding last year, same number? .
Full year -- you want full year numbers, right? So last year was INR 1,600 crores -- INR 1,700 crores roughly. This year, it is INR 2,000 crores roughly. This is not rated . Rated, you take only for whole financial year.
Okay. I would actually asking Q4.
Q4 is INR 540 crores last year and INR 620 crores. current year that is FY '23.
The next question is from the line of Thakkar from
Congratulations, sir, on concluding a great year. Just 2 follow-ups to the comments that you made earlier. One was around the growth. Could you just -- you always targeted that high growth, but could you just help us understand what are the products, what are the channels that make you hopeful for achieving the 20%, 25% growth that you are offering? That was one. And second was the question on relationship with SBI Bank. You did make a comment that you are sort of to looking at new products, which could be a win-win, both for the customer and also for the channel partners. But just wanted to understand from SBI Life's P&L or margin point of view, if you do these products or terms of trade with SBI were to change, 1 concern that investors do carry is that, does that impacting your VNB margins? Those 2 questions from my side, sir. .
So one of the things I always say that the whole idea of group business is that it should be beneficial to the customer and all the stakeholders. So if you keep that in mind, then I think you get your answer We will make sure that the customer gets a good value proposition, and distributors are rewarded well for the kind of good selling that they will do. If we get good customers, if we get good persistency since we get a good product mix, which then gives us a good margin. Obviously, distributor also gets a good proportion of that. And as far as channels for growth are concerned, like I said, we have very strong channel. So 3 channels that are very strong now, SBI, agency and other banks. Other banks a smaller base, but they are ready to grow very well because the customers definitely need all the products that we have. You can see, as I said, we have today -- we are ending with March with 208,000-plus agents, and this is an increase of over 62,000 agents over last year. And when these agents are developed and activated and they will be activated over a period of time. Some of them have become active, some of them will become active over time. And it will be more and more productive. We have one of the most productive sales agency sales forces in the country. So in the private sector, we have the most productive agency. And therefore, these are -- and of course, SBI as a channel, so we have the potential out there. There are a number of customers who need to be covered with insurance. So going forward, I don't see any of avenues for growth.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Nischint Chawathe from Kotak Institutional Equities.
I'm looking at an average policy term. And I believe on the non-par side, our average policy term is at around 27 for the last 4 quarters as compared to around '19, '20 in the previous year. So what would be the reason for this? And do we
So where you see this is a product change. So you have more of traditional non-par guaranteed. This is a longer-term products.
So earlier, it was where onetime money was getting paid. Now is getting paid over spread.
So we have a product which grows -- you pay 10 years and then after from the 11th year to 25 years, you get returns. So overall, it's because of a 35-year product.
And the margins between both the products would be substantially different?
No, no margins are similar to the -- value of the endowment. So earlier, we are having only value. Now we have on the income which is saving more. And margin is -- you can see the margin because we are selling more coming from this product, and we're growing the margin. The margin is similar to the both
Ultimately, do you see a challenge in kind of hedging this product as it's kind of...
Not at all. Because we restrict to the premium paying term as to the tenure, and most of this is coming from 7 to 10 years. So that perspective is hedging. So we don't see any on the cost
The next question is from the line of Sneha from Star Union Daiichi.
How do you see the overall on the distribution mix? What are the focus area planning to grow more over there? I'm sure all the parameters. Could you guide us?
Yes. So I think I already answered this question before, maybe you were not there on the call. What we have done is we have more than 208,000 agents today, and this is an increase of 62,000 agents this year. So that is one of the things that we are doing. And the other is, of course, in SBI and the other banks, so we have a good number of customers out there who still need insurance. So these are the main channels around which we will be selling obviously, we'll be selling some people directly online and through other channel partners.
Ladies and gentlemen, that would be our last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Mahesh Kumar Sharma for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Yes. Thank you very much. And thanks to all the participants on the call who have given us this -- given us so many insights and given us feedback and also asked very relevant questions. And we hope that all of you have a very good time investing. And stay safe, and have a good evening. Thank you very much.
Thank you. On behalf of SBI Life Insurance Company Limited, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.