Refused to commit on regular pay deferred annuity.

On product mix - in the current environment with repo rate cut and bond yields holding/inching up, non-par savings growth would have expected to be stronger but it has not been. What's hampering demand of non-par? Secondly, solvency at 191% is far above regulatory 150% but management threshold is 180%. Is solvency and organic profit generation sufficient for strong growth across product segments or any limitation?

Thank you, Avinash, for your appreciation. So, product mix, as far as you were talking about non-par growth, so I would like to highlight that on IRP basis, the growth in pure non-par products, excluding protection, is 10%. Protection has grown by 44%. The numbers of non -par could have been better, but during the quarter, we launched our participating product, Moneyback, and a lot of our distributors got diverted to that new product, and it showed very strong growth. So, if you look at the non-par & par combined growth, it has been much better than our overall IRP growth. As far as solvency is concerned, yes, it has slightly come down in the H1 numbers, but then that is also a result of our product mix. A lot of protection is being written, and if you look at the total sum assured that has been written by the Company, we are one of the highest with more than 74% growth on total sum assured. That is having some impact on the solvency. But at 1.91, we are comfortable, and we are very sure that going forward in the short term, this will continue to support our growth.

If labor code impact and GST impact are already in numbers, and par has outgrown non-par, all factors already in base. Is it safe to assume going ahead margins typically would be better than where it has been in the quarter?

No, as far as margin is concerned, we are very happy that the guidance that we had provided of between 26% and 28%, we have been able to maintain that at the middle range of that. As far as GST impact is concerned, see that impact is going to continue because the business will be there and commission payment will be there. The GST payment on that commission wi ll continue to be there. But by our internal processes, by strengthening our product mix, our distribution mix and having leverage on our other operational expenses, etc., we have been able to maintain the margin as per our guidance. So, we continue to stick to our guidance of between 26 % and 28% in the coming quarter also.

On channel performance, how do you see SBI as a channel growing from here on? It's been showing strong momentum. Do you see this momentum getting stronger?

So, as far as channel mix is concerned, we are happy that our overall growth number that the guidance that we had provided of about 13 %-14%, we have been able to maintain that and slightly maybe even better than the guidance. Within the channel mix, different channels have their seasonality and third quarter specifically has always been very good for SBI Life. There is some good traction being seen in the SBI also of late and we are very sure that in the 4th Quarter also, we will be able to maintain our overall growth number as per our guidance of 13 %-14% and within that, all the channels are performing as per our expectations.

On cost ratios, total cost ratio has gone up to about 11.2% in 9 months. There will be implications of GST and labor laws. GST impact is going to be there but labor law could be one time. How do we see cost ratios going ahead? Topping out at current levels or continuing to increase?

You see the product mix is also one of the factors for the cost ratio. As you rightly said, GST and the labor code impact has also been there. Going forward, I think we will continue to maintain in the same range plus minus approximately. We have to differentiate between operating cost and commission. Operating cost, like MD said, we will continue to maintain and if our product mix further improves, there could be some increase in commission ratio, but that is part of the overall mix. So, that should not matter.

Anything on commission capping discussions in the industry. Any thoughts to share?

So, we continue to be the lowest cost operator in the industry and we are ready for any kind of changes, if any, coming from the regulator side on the commission front.

On VNB margin - in first half call you mentioned ceteris paribus impact of GST is about 175 basis points on full year basis vs FY'25. What would that number be now? On protection growth - vs peers individual protection growth has been lower; with GST cut one would expect stronger protection growth. What's the thought process and acceleration outlook? On new labor laws - can you quantify the impact and have you accounted for this in EV disclosure?

So, I will come to your second question first. The protection growth for the year on the IRP basis has been 26.1%. And including group also, we have seen some good protection growth in credit life, 27% plus. So, overall, the protection growth is better than the Company's overall growth numbers. Our focus on protection products, as you must have noticed, we have launched several products in last one year in the protection segment and very competitively priced. Our protection product on the YONO channel is also giving us very good numbers. We have sold more than 1.5 lakh policies in last nine months in this financial year. So, the focus on protection continues to be there. As far as impact of new labor laws is concerned, it is 135 crores, which has been accounted for in our profitability statement. And yes, this has also been counted under the EV calculation. Now, regarding VONB margin, I will request our Chief Actuary Mr. Pritesh Chaubey to respond. Thanks, sir. Margin front, what we explained last time that the full year impact will be 175 basis point. And that we primarily will try to get offset by the better product mix. If I look into this quarter, the full year business impact is around 150 basis point. And this is coming because you might have noticed that there is slightly increase in the ULIP mix and that part. But that also helps us to get lesser impact on the GST. So, if you look at YTD basis, it's 110 basis point. So, we are still holding up that by the end of the y ear, most of the impact will get offset by the better product mix and maybe left with 30 -40 basis point, not more than that at the end of the year.

We are seeing reduction in persistency in 25th, 37th, 61st month. Any comments and have we assumed enough or is there margin of error or would that result in some negative operating experience?

There is no concern at all in the persistency is concerned. We have got a very good strong growth in our renewal premiums, almost 20 %-21%. If you see the 13-month persistency also has shown the growth better as compared to the previous numbers. Only the 61st month persistency which has come down, which previously also we have communicated that this is the COVID cohort, which is going to hit this year. This is going to be the last cohort, which we are expecting. 25 th month and the 37th month, it is just a marginal, which we are very hopeful that it will cover up in the current quarter itself. And 49-months, we are very clear that it is going to be positive. So, we do not have any issue at this moment as far as the persistency is concerned across cohorts.

If I understood right, in 2Q annualized impact was 175 bps on margin due to GST, you cut it down to 150. By end of full year, impact should not be on annualized basis more than 30-40 basis points. That is the way you are trying to tell?

The impact net of this product mix will be nothing more than 30-40 basis points.

So compared to last year, if you do not make any assumption changes which you typically do in 4Q, then margin for the Company will be 30-40 basis point lower compared to last year?

Yes, that is correct. Yes, that will come back another year in. It will also depend on the product mix.

You are already at 16% growth in 9 months. So if you don't beat the guidance, then it's like 10%-11% growth for 4th Quarter. Assuming that number will be conservative?

No, we will definitely be much better than 10%-11% if you look at the individual quarter. But overall guidance for the year remains at 14%. But saying that, 3 will remain our biggest quarter in absolute numbers.

This quarter the amount of par sold is almost more than what we sold in entire last year. What is driving this? Is there a specific push? Is it one-off?

This is a par portfolio, as we earlier also mentioned, even if see calls earlier as well. We are continually revamping our product suite and the last year when the regulation came, our priority was to prioritize annuity product and non -par and protection and subsequently we are having less par products. There are significant demand in the market for par particularly for the child segment and the money ba ck. So, this year we have launched both the products, one on the child segment, other in the limited pay money back par and other is the regular pay money back. So, this product, it was a lot of requirement from our field force from the last 15 to 18 months that we have launched. They were delayed from our side but when the product has gone, there is a lot of traction and that's the reason we see the growth in the par business. But if you look at the absolute, if you just ignore this growth but if you look at the composition of the par in our portfolio, it still is much lower. So, you may see the growth in the par going forward but this is our product management approach that we have finalized two years back and working on including the riders and there is nothing linked with the GST for the growth of the par.

On solvency - now in this quarter at multi-year low and we have potential dividend announcement coming in 4Q when we typically see 10-15 percentage point drop in solvency. How do we look at that and any need for capital requirement?

As far as our dividend distribution is concerned, we follow a principle which we are constantly following for the last few years. As far as the solvency is concerned, I think if you see it hovers between 192 to 202. So, we are pretty comfortable on this range and as far as business, the way we have been doing and the product mix is shifting, there was anticipated that there would be some kind of pressure on the solvency. But we are quite confident that our back books as well as our business grow th which we are anticipating in the next quarter, we do not see any pressure on the solvency per se towards the declaration of dividend is concerned.

On protection products - individual sum assured has gone up by almost 74% but individual protection NBP has grown by 25%. Is sum assured inflation because of selling more return of premium term plans or because sum assured on savings products has gone up? Second on channel economics - bancassurance productivity jumped 15% and agency productivity at 3 lakhs despite 25% more agents. OPEX ratio up 90 bps to 6.2%. How much OPEX increase is related to agency and timeline before agency productivity inches up?

So, divergence between the sum assured and the premium is on account of the growth in the total protection and within the protection, the share of TROP has gone down. Share of pure protection has gone up with where the premiums are lower. So, the total premium growth is lower than the total sum assured growth. That is as far as your protection query is concerned. Regarding the increase in OPEX, as already said that this is also a result of change in product mix. The productivity on the agency side, there is already an uptick not only on the productivity also on the number of agents have increased and despite that productivity is showing a good increase in the number. So, strengthening of agency channel is ongoing and we want to improve our total agency contribution in the channel mix.

Just on sum assured - individual sum assured up 74% but individual NBP protection up 25%. Why the gap - is this because you are selling more return of premium products?

No, it is actually reverse. For the same sum assured, TROP has a higher premium than pure protection. Here our mix is improving in favor of pure protection. So, the premium is going down for the same sum assured.

On gross impact of GST in this quarter - on absolute number, impact is around 1.3 billion which is almost 5% of 3Q VNB. Unable to reconcile how that fits with overall 1.75% impact for full year. On Banca growth - starting from September Banca growth has been a positive surprise. Anything to read into that? Should we extrapolate this kind of growth?

So, on the GST side, on the margin, what are we saying that the business that we written in this Q3, which is purely post-GST, the impact on the margin, that this is only for the one quarter, and the GST impact came on the 22nd of September. So, the impact that we are seeing in 110 basis points that we disclosed is on account of the new business written after the 22 nd of September. And the earlier business didn't have the GST impact on the renewal comissions. And once going forward, once this will move to the next year, the impact for our business will be 150 basis points on an annualized basis. And what we are saying that the impact that we are going to get on the new business on account of GST, 150 basis points will get offset mostly by the better product mix in terms of the line of business and within the product and different kind of products. And that will mostly offset and balance remain will be approximately 30-40 basis points at the end of this year. As far as Ban ca growth is concerned, first, let me clarify that there has never been any degrowth in the Banca channel in the last two years or even three years kind of period. Yes, the growth rate has come down to higher single digits. And fourth quarter growth as far as concerned, you are aware that you see, October, November, December has always been a very st rong quarter for SBI Life. And this year's growth was also added by I will say that the GST issue, the GST exemption that has been granted, the afford ability has improved and probably that has effect on the entire industry, including the SBI life which has posted very good numbers in Q3.

So nothing specific which has changed in the SBI bank channel in the last 3-4 months?

It's a natural growth progression.

These branches will be opened in tier 2 and tier 3?

Some of them are in tier 1 also. So, depending upon what is the potential we see in a particular area is where we open the branch. Obviously, many of them are in tier 2, tier 3, but not significantly in tier 2, tier 3.

On rider attachment - currently 35-40%. Plans on attachment of riders in renewal business - where are we? Banca - very strong growth in Q3, qualitative comments around January growth? Is growth in Banca primarily driven by launch of new par product? Digitization initiatives in SBI Bank - YONO app driving slowdown - how is business shaping up from YONO? Product pipeline for Q4 - have we launched any product?

So, on the rider attachment, we have just begun in this quarter rider attachment and renewal that has just started. Though we want to increase the set of products from which rider attachment is available, that will probably take the next quarter. So, current set of existing products which are in force with the rider attachment has started. Products which are closed for new business, rider attachment has not yet started. That also we hope we will start. On the Ban ca, like we would continue to exp ect decent growth coming forward, going forward, similar in line with, maybe a little more less than the Company growth that we see in the Banca, overall company growth. As far as new product, we have already launched Smart Platin a Advantage and there is work going on the other products, which may come this year or maybe early first quarter, FY'27.

Just to follow up on the renewal rider attachment - does this pertain to a particular business segment, ULIP or non-par where we have started attaching the riders?

Both. Not closed for new business, which are open for new business where they have started from 1st October. Some of them have started a little earlier. So, first renewals have already started coming in for the products which we are currently selling. For that, rider attachment is in place. Just to add, we have given flexibility to the customer in case they are able to opt to attach the rider at the beginning of the policy, they are also to attach in the subsequent policy anniversary as well. So, you might see that renewal, not only the one chunk that before the new business which has been sold before the launch of this rider will get attached, but some of the policy which is missing today for rider, you may see that the customer will also go and opt for the rider in subsequent premium payment time.

On YONO - how much business are we able to channelize via that?

1.5 lakh policies we have already sold in current year and th at is a pure protection product that we are selling.

On renewal business - rider premium, will it be classified as renewal premium or new business premium and how are we accounting for new business margins?

So, any, it's a rider is a new product. So, all riders is a new product. Any new riders sold in a particular year will be classified as a new premium. And the impact on margin is not material.

Credit Life APE for third quarter and non-SBI banca product mix and how that has evolved?

So, Credit Life APE is roughly INR 75 crores in Quarter 3 and for the non -SBI partnership, roughly it is 20% ULIPs remaining non-ULIP, roughly split half-half between par and non-par with about 5%-6% protection. Roughly that is the mix.

Why is the par product growing so much? In recent quarter par has grown more than non-par which shouldn't be the case given current yield curves. Can you throw some light?

So, as we explained earlier, in our product portfolio, we are mixing up the specific product in the par segment, particularly in the child segment and the money ba ck that we have launched. So, while child products help to meet the customer requirement to protect their child, the money ba ck also provides the liquidity to the policyholder because the payment is done on the regular interval. And this was the most awaited product to launch. And that's the reason we see a lot of traction in things. And that's the reason we see that growth is happening in the par. But if you look into totality, par is still much slower than what we expected to be. Par is expected to be roughly 15% of our business. We are looking to give approximately 15%-20% of the par because that will also help us to give the better return for the existing customers as well. And in the last few years, we have declared the bonuses which are higher than what I have illustrated and also giving attraction to the customer in terms of buying these par products.