The three-day strike by public sector bank employees from September 28 to 30, coinciding with the month-end and quarter-end, could hit 10-15 per cent of life insurers’ September business through the bancassurance channel, under which state-owned banks distribute insurance products, according to senior insurance industry officials.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), in a statement, called upon its unions and members to go ahead with the three-day strike on September 28, 29 and 30.
“The last three days of the month are important for insurance because generally insurance companies do nearly 1.5–2 times more business in September compared to August. This September is also a shorter month compared to last year because of holidays. The strike is likely to take away three additional business days. According to our estimates, business could decline by 10–15 per cent during the month,” a senior life insurance official said.
The impact could, however, be limited to the timing of business rather than the complete loss of sales, as some policies may be logged in October, the official said. “But for the first half of the financial year, business through the PSU bank channel is likely to be impacted,” the person added.
The strike comes at the end of both September and the second quarter of the financial year. While insurers have seen healthy premium collections during June-August and are likely to have recorded strong sales so far in September, the final few days of the month are particularly important for insurers, officials said.
“We have done really good business till August this year. But the strike called by bank employees is concerning as it is the last three days of both the month and the quarter,” another senior insurance official said on condition of anonymity.
Life insurers recorded 20.41 per cent growth in new business premium during April-August of FY27 to ₹1.96 trillion, while August alone saw new business premium rise 33 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to ₹41,197.78 crore. Non-life insurers recorded nearly 9.6 per cent YoY growth in gross direct premium underwritten during April-August to ₹1.47 trillion, while August premium rose 10 per cent to ₹27,454.5 crore.
According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India’s (Irdai’s) annual report for FY25, public sector banks accounted for 4.13 per cent of individual new business premium and 0.10 per cent of group new business premium for life insurers. For general insurers, PSU banks accounted for 0.59 per cent of premium.
