Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Max Financial Services Limited Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded, and I'll hand the conference over to Mr. Amrit Singh from Max Financial Services Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today morning for results June 2025. We had provided our presentations on the websites and also on the exchange last evening. As always, joining me today are Mr. Prashant Tripathy, Managing Director and CEO of Axis Max Life Insurance, Sumit Madan, Chief Distribution Officer of Axis Max Life Insurance, and Nishant Kumar, CFO of MFSL. I would first invite Prashant to just walk us through the developments of the quarter.
Thank you, Amrit. Good morning, everyone. I'm very happy to share that following a remarkable financial year 2025, we have carried forward our strong growth momentum into quarter one of FY 2026, also delivering healthy growth while balancing the needs of our customers, partners, shareholders, and employees. Let me first begin by sharing great news that we at Axis Max Life Insurance are very proud of, and that is our ranking in the Great Place to Work Institute rating methodology that happened for 2025. There were several accolades that came our way. Number one and most importantly, ranked number 28 among top 1,000 best companies to work for, and about 2,400 companies of India participated in that survey. We also featured in top 50 India's Best Workplaces , building a culture of innovation by all, and also ranked among the top 25 Best Workplaces in BFSI 2025 .
Very happy to share that for all the last six or seven years that we have participated in that survey, we have ranked among top 50, and we are also a laureate, which means more than 10 years being among top 100 Great Place to Work. Our people continue to be the heart of everything that we do, and these recognitions are a testament to the culture we have built together: a culture of trust, innovation, and commitment. With that, let me walk you through the key developments across all our strategic focus areas during the quarter. First and foremost, sustainable and predictable growth. In quarter one FY 2026, our individual adjusted first-year premium grew by 23%, which is nearly three times that of the private sector growth of 8% and more than four times the overall industry growth of 5%.
Additionally, on a two-year CAGR basis, we delivered a robust 25% growth, significantly ahead of the 16% CAGR for private sector and more than twice the industry growth rate of 12%. In terms of APE, which is annualized premium equivalent, we grew at 15% in quarter one FY 2026, driven by both Prop as well as Banca channels. Our Prop channels have consistently served the pillar of our strong growth over an extended period. On a three-year basis, these channels have demonstrated APE growth of 32%, with online channels putting a three-year CAGR of 63% and offline channels at 24%. Continuing this trajectory in the quarter as well, our offline proprietary channels delivered a strong 18% APE. We continue to maintain leadership in online space despite online APE remaining flattish, and that's the reason you see a delta between the 23 and 15.
This is owing to a large base of ULIP sales in last year, which also caused divergence in growth rates of APE and adjusted FYP. We have done a review of how this delta will be for the coming quarters, and I must share that it's going to plateau, and I don't expect a delta of more than 2%-4% between the adjusted FYP and APE numbers going forward. Our Bancassurance channels APE also grew by a strong 16% in quarter one, driven by consistent performance across partner banks and supported by the ramp-up of new relationships established over the last two years. The Axis Bank grew at 11%. Other Banca partners collectively grew by a massive 54%. This is also a result of new bank relationships that we signed up over the last couple of years.
Continuing this journey, we added 15 new partners across retail and group channels during quarter one FY 2026 to further strengthen our distribution network. Coming to the products, where innovation is our endeavor all the time to drive margins, Axis Max Life remains deeply committed to leading in product innovation with a clear focus on creating value for all stakeholders, including customers, employees, partners, investors, and community. In this quarter, we launched another innovative flagship product called Smart Vibe, offering instant income in the first-year policy, the first policy year. Key features include enhanced protection through riders and Policy Continuance Benefit , and accumulation of Survival Benefit and Premium Offset . This launch has helped us rebalance our product mix, reducing the share of ULIPs from 43% in quarter one last year to 36% this quarter.
Additionally, our rider APE has surged by over 300%, contributing positively to a 36% growth in the protection segment. Our pure protection portfolio also recorded a healthy growth of 26%. Annuities, another strategic focus area, grew by 40%, further strengthening our diversified product portfolio. These developments have not only aligned with our stated strategy of maintaining a balanced product mix, but have also led a margin expansion from 17.5% margin quarter one FY 2025 to 20.1% in quarter one FY 2026, resulting in an impressive 32% growth in value of new business. Thus, for quarter one performance, our quarter one performance gives us reasonable confidence, or I should say maybe good confidence, to maintain our margin guidance of 24%-25% for FY 2026 as we continue to invest in our distribution channels.
Focusing on some of the customer outcomes, we are pleased to share that Axis Max Life achieved its highest-ever individual death claim rate ratio of 99.7% in FY 2025, a powerful testament to the deep trust our customers place in us and our unwavering commitment to honoring that trust when it matters the most. We continue to lead the industry in 13th month efficiency on a number of policy basis as per FY 2025 rankings and hold the second position in both 25th month and 37th month efficiency on the same basis. In terms of premium, 13th month efficiency stood at 86% compared to 87% in quarter one last year, while 25th month efficiency has achieved or reached its all-time high at 75%, reflecting a year-on-year improvement of close to 500 basis points.
Our NPS score, Net Promoter Score , where we just transitioned from a manual means to a digital means, remains strong at 54, up from a baseline of 52 on an apple-to-apple basis at FY 2025 exit. Touchpoint NPS improved by two points from 55 - 57, and relationship NPS remained at par, indicating strong customer sentiments and effectiveness of our engagement strategies. We've also made notable progress in grievance resolution, with grievance incidence rate, GIR, improving to 44 in quarter one FY 2026, down from 55 in quarter one of FY 2025. These consistent improvements across customer trust, retention, and service excellence reinforce our strategic focus on long-term value creation and sustainable growth.
In addition, I'm very happy to share with you that consistent with the hypothesis that we had made while rebranding ourselves from Max Life to Axis Max Life, we have seen significant improvement in our scores on consideration. Before this exercise was undertaken last year, we had a consideration score of 78, which has jumped up to 83, and we are also witnessing very good momentum, especially in Tier 2, Tier 3 cities, and I'm very happy to share that we are able to sustain those scores. With respect to competition, I think our overall positioning has strengthened as a result of the rebranding exercise that we undertook end of last year. Digitization is another focus area for us, and our ongoing digital journey continues to drive operational excellence, customer satisfaction, and scalable innovation across enterprise.
We recently launched the Axis Max Life app, a fully in-house developed digital platform that integrates life insurance servicing with wellness benefits. An industry first in the life insurance space. Available on Android and iOS, the app offers seamless policy management, premium payments, online purchases, and AI-powered chatbots for both insurance and wellness support. Built on a modern tech stack, the app is deeply embedded in our ecosystem to enable real-time engagement and analytics. We also expect app-engaged customers to show higher relationship NPS and persistency, while increased DIY servicing will drive meaningful long-term cost savings. So to all the people who are on the call and happen to be our customers, I would sincerely urge that you download our app and be our app-engaged customers.
In Q1, we successfully completed an enterprise-wide brand refresh, aligning all digital assets, including B2B platforms, HR systems, and communication tools, and our renewed brand identity. This includes a domain and email overhaul, reinforcing consistency and trust across stakeholders' touchpoints. We also implemented several key interventions to streamline policy issuance and strengthened risk management during onboarding, notably eKYC adoption increased from 35% to 70%, significantly reducing manual efforts and improving turnaround times. Additionally, we enabled the final payment journey with ASBA, ensuring full compliance with PPI guidelines. On the servicing front, we launched a GenAI-powered email bot, which is expected to automate 30% of the customer service volumes and enable 20% headcount optimization, enhancing both efficiency and scalability. Collectively, these initiatives have significantly strengthened Axis Max Life's digital backbone, enhancing operational efficiency, elevating customer-employee satisfaction, and reinforcing our competitive advantage in the market.
To summarize, we have had a strong start of the year with solid performance across all key metrics. While global geopolitical developments continue to shape market dynamics, we remain confident in our ability to deliver on our guidance and drive sustained value to all our stakeholders. On a separate note, as you may be aware, I'm going to step down from my current role of Managing Director and CEO on 30th September, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support, all your engagement, friendship with most of you, and communication during my career here as CFO and CEO. Axis Max Life Insurance has always believed in distributed leadership, which is a unique thing about our organization.
As I hand over the baton to Sumit Madan, our Chief Distribution Officer, who takes over as MD and CEO of this company from 1st October, and he's also there on the call, I am very confident that the momentum that we have built, the strength that we have shown, the remarkable progress that we have made across all the strategic vectors highlighted, and our ability to meet quarter-on-quarter, month-on-month commitments will only get enhanced, so I will look forward to your support, and let's give our best wishes to Sumit in his new role. You will hear from him as we go along, but let me pass it back to you, Amrit, for the financial numbers.
Thank you, Prashant. Just quick hygiene financial metrics. MFSL revenue, excluding investment income, stands at INR 6,194 crores, which is a growth of 18% in the first quarter.
Consolidated profit after tax stands at INR 86 crores, largely impacted due to strains because of a strong new business sales momentum. Gross Written Premium for Axis Max Life grew by 18%. And more importantly, renewal premium also demonstrated a healthy growth of 17%, standing at INR 3,873 crores. As Prashant mentioned, VNB, which is a measure of profitability for our industry, stands at INR 335 crores for first quarter FY 2026, a growth of 32%. NBM expanded from 17.5% in last year quarter one to 20.1% for this particular quarter. Embedded value end of June stands at INR 26,478 crores, a growth of 20%. Annualized operating ROEV, a measure of performance, stands at 14.3%, again an expansion from 14.2% demonstrated last year. Policyholder OPEX to GWP is 17.8%. Policyholder OPEX has grown by 18%.
Overall assets under management for Axis Max Life now stands at 1.83 lakh crores, which is a growth of 14%. With that, we'll open the floor for questions, and I'll request the moderator to open it.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Shreya Shivani from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a great set of numbers. I have three questions.
My first question is, just for the clarity for the coming months, can you also explain why the monthly numbers are distorted? I know that you've sold a lot of these monthly modal products. So which of the line items is where the number in our monthly, the Life Insurance Council data, the number is getting wrongly represented, and that's why we guys, when we calculate the APE, it comes out much higher at 20%-25%, whatever. And how long will this continue, or should we expect a 2% - 4 % point difference, as you had mentioned, for the rest of the months for this year? That's my first question. My second question is on the agency channel. So you've done a great job in the last two years with the agent addition.
Though with new agents coming on board, the agent productivity for your entire book had sort of declined. So what is usually the time frame in which your agent productivity can recover? Because you've always had one of the best agent productivity on street. And my last question is, again, this is very media article and media speculation based, but any update on insurance bill? Are you hearing anything negative about the clause which allows for merger between insurance and non-insurance company? There was even media speculation which said that Axis Bank wants to raise stake. I mean, any clarification over there would be quite useful. Those are my three questions. Thank you.
So Shreya, thanks for these questions. I'll take the first one, which is the AFYP and APE numbers. And firstly, let me just correct you that the monthly numbers published are not wrong.
Those monthly numbers which are publishing are accurate. It is just that those monthly numbers are on AFYP basis, whereas the overall financial reporting, in addition to AFYP basis, we do also share APE basis, annualized premium equivalent. The difference between both the method is in the annualized premium equivalent, you kind of recognize the entire premium of a policy of the first 12 months in the first instant itself, whereas in the AFYP, it is actually based on the collection that is received on a month-to-month basis. Now, the market intelligence number, the Life Insurance Council number that you see, are based on monthly collections. APE is an additional measure which companies disclose quarterly, which is what we have also disclosed. Where is it coming from, this gap and this difference? It will always come from a channel which is heavy on monthly modes, and no prizes for guessing.
That actually is an e-commerce channel where the consumers prefer to pay on a monthly basis. So the gap has come because of the fact that overall the online business, especially on the savings side, has seen a moderation in momentum, largely due to the volatility in markets which have impacted a little bit of ULIP demands during the quarter. And that's why the mobilization of APE and e-commerce is slower. But beyond this, actually, there is hardly any difference in any of the channels between both these numbers. Going forward, as Prashant mentioned, we do expect this gap to narrow. We are looking more at a 2% or 3% kind of gap still existing, but the gap will definitely narrow. Shreya, I take the second question on your point around agent productivity.
I think one, our proprietorship business, largely led by agency, remains very strong, and the same has been disclosed as part of the numbers also. There have been a number of measures taken into that account. But to answer your specific question, Shreya, in fact, our overall productivity has actually gone up by 4% over quarter one of last year. The difference is that normally when we track the productivity, it's tracked basically MTD active numbers rather than the total numbers, which is more of a base impact. So if you look at the productivity of the active agents over last quarter to this quarter, it's actually an increase of almost 4%. Shreya, coming to your question, Prashant, on insurance bill, yes, I also read some of these media articles.
Of course, whenever we engage with stakeholders in this space to figure out what is going to change in the insurance bills, the latest update as far as we know is that the bill is ready to be presented in the Parliament. We just need to wait until it goes through. In all likelihood, it will be picked up in the forthcoming Parliament session. It may not happen this time around. There is no change as far as Section 35 provision is concerned. I think it will be allowed. A non-life insurance company might merge or may be allowed to merge with a life insurance company with a prior approval from IRDAI. In our case, as you know, the company that we want to merge with is just an operating company. It is not an operating company. It is just a holding company.
It has no operating balance sheet, so we don't foresee any problems. So as far as the insurance bill is concerned, our information actually suggests that we are awaiting the approval of the bill, and after that, we will be okay. As far as your other point around raising the equity by the bank, etc., I think we are here to hear anything on that ground. So it may be just market speculation, and there is no point talking about that.
Got it. Got it. These are very useful. Thank you so much for answering all the questions, and Prashant sir, for you, all the best for your future endeavors. Thank you for all the support that you've given to us over these years. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Shreya.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to answer questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Swarnabh Mukherjee from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, Sir. Good morning. And congrats on a great set of numbers. Two questions. First, on the margins, I just wanted to understand.
Sorry to interrupt. Mr. Swarnabh Mukherjee, may I request you to use a headset while asking a question?
Yeah. Is this better now?
Yes, please go ahead with your question.
Yeah, sure. So in terms of the margin, wanted to understand whether there is any impact on the surrender value-related regulation?
You had a second question as well. So why don't you complete the second, and then I'll answer both?
Sorry. In terms of margins on the. This is for kind of.
We're losing you, Swarnabh?
Yeah. Can you hear me now? Is this better?
Yeah.
Yeah. So I was saying that there is a 260 basis points kind of expansion in the margin profile from last year to this year. I just wanted to understand, are we being a little bit in terms of maintaining our guidance, or do we expect that going forward, given that this has come from good product mix alterations, do we expect that in upcoming quarters, the quantum of expansion can be not at this level? I just wanted to understand that on the margins part. And also, I can squeeze in a little bit on the product side. So I think we have done very well over the last three years.
But right now, I think at least on our APE basis, we are one of the largest in the private, at least among the listed players. So what is the headroom there in the near term? If you could highlight on that. Yeah. These are my questions, sir.
So I didn't get your third question, actually, very clearly, but let me answer the first two that you asked. Swarnabh Mukherjee, as we have been kind of highlighting, subsequent to surrender actions, we took actions on multiple fronts. And now it is almost impossible at this point to kind of just segregate surrender impact and try to indicate. We have mitigated most of the surrender impact. And this is actually in traditional categories and also leveraging other categories with respect to getting the pricing actions taken on those categories as well.
For this particular quarter, product mix has actually aided, as you can see. This was a quarter we did launch a very strong non-participating savings product, which saw strong acceptance that aided. In addition to it, all the actions taken post 1st October, which actually in the run rate have continued, which are around pricing actions and rider contributions, etc., continues to aid the margin expansion process. With respect to full year's guidance, I mean, we have been reiterating, I think we would like to remain in this healthy range of margins, which is between 24%-25%. If we see margins actually running up ahead of that, we will be very keen on plowing that back into the business for growth purposes and building distribution, and that's the mindset with which we are approaching this business.
So I will advise that we stick to the same guidance that we have indicated rather than building further expansion there. The last question, unfortunately, I couldn't hear, so I'm unable to answer it. If it is around protection, that we have been doing well in protection and how do we see it forward. We continue to be very excited about the protection opportunity. India, as you are all aware, with respect to insurance penetrations, is severely underpenetrated. We definitely do expect, given our focus in this category, not just in sourcing, but also overall underwriting price, etc., we would like to continue to remain engaged in this category and do better than the market. We see no reasons any of that actually altering at this point in time.
Sure. So very helpful. Thank you so much and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Avinash Singh from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Sir . Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. Our best wishes, Prashant, for your future endeavors. And congratulations to Sumit. You have resolved most of the issues related, particularly the non-operating issues at the company. So of course, expectation is going to be high from Sumit as well. Two questions. The first one is going to be in terms of your product mix, not so much margins. So now, I mean, you are back to kind of where typically you wanted to be ULIP and non-ULIP mix. Is this trend going to continue for the rest of the year? Or, I mean, if at all, market environment turns conducive, you would be okay to increase ULIP? So that's the first on product mix.
The second one, more again, a bit, I would say, fundamentally, I can see, but yet I want you to answer. Again, time and again, sometimes media news comes around some of your promoter or, yeah, increasing capital. But when I see, I mean, your solvency now even close to 200% and a reasonable, I would say, back to profit generation. In that case, I mean, given that typically your 180% is the comfortable solvency range where you would like to be, do you really see any need of external capital for the next two to three years, even if assuming the growth accelerates? Thank you.
First question on product mix, Avinashji, I think, yes, the product mix is very balanced. But having said, if the market opportunity presents us to drive higher momentums, leveraging ULIP, which is actually a great product from a consumer perspective as well.
Also, now with the design variance enhancements where even a unit-linked design is actually offering healthy protection components, we will, in a calibrated manner, always keep looking at these opportunities. Overall, again, reiterating, I think we'd like to keep the product mix balanced and very carefully balancing that between proprietary and non-proprietary with an overall objective that our margins remain range-bound. I think on the second one, yes, your observation is right. Our solvency at the end of this quarter stands at 199%. Given this business consumes capital due to the products that we are selling and the growth momentum that we are demonstrating, we do expect over a medium to long horizon, some capital emergence happening. Some part of that we will fulfill through the debt capacity that we have at our end.
But I think we will never stop the business from a growth capital requirement perspective, and we are quite confident that our shareholders will also be more than happy to kind of contribute if required for providing and aiding the growth capital in the business.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Supratim from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the product and Banca channel. So could you help us understand how much has Smart Vibe contributed to non-PAR savings APE this quarter? And when I look at the Banca channel, similar to the overall group level, there has been a shift towards protection and non-PAR.
But given this channel has typically shown a greater proclivity towards selling ULIP, just wanted to understand, is there a strategic shift that has happened as well here towards selling more non-PAR and protection along with the new product? And finally, my last question is on the backbook surplus and new business strain. The new business strain versus last quarter has grown fairly significantly. Is this only driven by product level changes, or is there something else there as well if you could help us understand that? Thank you.
Thanks, Pratim. I will not specifically comment on a specific product number, but needless to say, whenever new product is launched, it does end up being over 50% of the category contribution given the excitement that it provides to the field and the distribution teams. And that's the kind of success that we have seen even in Smart Vibe.
Specifically, coming to your comments around the overall ULIP mix within our banks, some part is market-driven and some part is also intentional. As we have been mentioning, that we would definitely, working along with banks and especially our promoter bank, try to balance the product mix towards a more optimal level, and that is what I think efforts have been. And very interestingly, actually, at Axis Bank, the number of policy growth has been very robust. We have grown over 20% at the bank. So a shift away from ULIPs, which can sometimes affect the overall top-line growth because of the case size being higher, those have been compensated by overall higher degree of activity within the bank. So just a short answer, I think it's a mix of both the market plus also some conscious efforts of balancing the overall mix within the channel.
Lastly, your observation on new business strain is correct. It is product-driven. It is the higher proportion of non-PAR, and especially in a quarter where we don't necessarily get this equivalent operating leverage advantage because it's a smaller quarter from a sales perspective. The strain has been higher because of this particular product category becoming larger in the mix for the quarter.
Thanks, Amrit. Just one question if I could squeeze in. The other Banca channel, which is now close to around 20% of your overall Banca contribution, how much further room is there for this channel to expand? It has been growing fairly at a fast clip. So just wanted to understand how should we think about this channel?
I think Supratim Sumit this side. We are actually very excited about the other banks because some of the recent growth we've seen in recent acquisition also. Very fast, we've been able to get the bancassurance share that we really desire. In some of the newer acquisition, for example, we've actually become a number one player in terms of bancassurance share also. So I think our growth progress and the entire opportunity it provides, we are actually very bullish about some of the other banks' side.
Got it. Thanks a lot, Sumit. And all the best for your new role. And all the best, Prashant, as well for your next quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. The first question is on the product-level margins, whether they have improved with rider attachments or with respect to even ULIPs, whether the sum assured has been going up. So whether the product-level margin has improved and your kind of product mix movement towards non-PAR has been the rates in the industry, have these been aggressive? And are we getting some impact of being aggressive and margins being lower on non-PAR relatively? So that's my first question. Second question is on the persistency. On the near-month, 13-month persistency, is some marginal weakness? Is there anything to read into it? Yeah, those would be my two questions. Thanks.
So Prayesh, thanks for these questions. If you compare from previous years, the same quarter, in certain categories, there is an improvement in margins. In certain categories, there has been subsequent weakness in margins because of the overall design structure changing in certain product forms.
but I will not get into the specifics of each of the segments, but I think all the elements that you spoke of, whether it is rider attachment, whether it is repricing of certain products, has definitely aided the margin expansions for us. In non-participating, it was. We have always been indicating, yes, it was impacted by the change in design structure post the surrender regulations. That impact, obviously, you will see in this particular quarter. It is not there sequentially, but if you compare this quarter with last year's quarter, you will definitely see that impact. but overall, I think it's a situation of you've kind of gained some places and you've kind of lost some places. but overall, we have been able to enhance the margin profiles.
On 13-month, we also have experienced some bit of a weakness, though with the collection efforts as the year has kind of progressed and we have been into three, four months of the financial year, we have also seen an improvement happening. But there is some bit of pressure, which is evident on the 13-month. Though we have continued to do well with respect to our improvements in the later cohorts, where you can see other cohorts, there has been an improvement coming through. But we are also closely observing this particular trend and making all efforts to ensure that the persistency outcome remains strong. Some bit of it could be an overall economic effect on the Indian consumers. Some bit of it is also the proportion of high-ticket sizes have reduced as time has kind of gone by. These have actually also had bearing on the persistency numbers.
So do we expect some persistency variance coming in terms of EV walk or negative variance coming in the EV walk towards the end of the year?
As we stand today and as we have reported our numbers, we have not seen anything like that. Because again, there has been positives and negatives which have come both in later cohorts. But we're keeping a close eye. There are adequate buffers or conservatism which is built into some of the new designs that we have rolled out ever since the change of surrender regulations.
Got it. And all the best, Sumit, for your future role. And Prashant sir, all the best to you for your future endeavors as well. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Prayesh.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Nuvama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Morning, everyone. First, congratulations, Sumit, and all the best to Prashant sir for your future endeavors. So most of my questions have been answered, but just a couple of things. Number one, on EV, what is the extent of positive economic variance? And number two, on the Axis Bank buying the additional 1% in Max Life , so where are we in that process? Yeah, those would be my two questions. That's it. Thanks.
Thanks, sir. On non-operating variance, we have had a positive number of around INR 431 crores. This is aided because of interest rate softening, which has led to positives on the debt side and also certain positives on the equity side. On the second question, Axis?
On the 1%, yes, the discussions. I mean, that's something Axis Bank is pursuing with RBI. And as soon as that approval comes through, Axis Bank will be doing either primary or secondary investments. We are awaiting an approval.
Got it. Got it. Okay. Thank you. All the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dipanjan Ghosh from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Hi sir. Good evening. So just a few questions from my side. First, if I look at the protection number, and you mentioned that your pure protection has grown by 26%. So if you assume 10% of riders in the base of your overall protection, and that has obviously grown at 300% plus, just wanted to get, is it some degrowth in the health segment? I mean, just wanted to triangulate the numbers within the protection segment. Second, your protection growth for the bancassurance has been quite strong for the last two or three quarters. So just wanted to get some sense or color in terms of what are the strategies on that channel. The last question is in terms of the EV walk. It seems there has been a recent operating release during the quarter. What would be the drivers for that?
Let me take some of these questions, actually. Actually, your observation is correct with respect to protection. As Prashant mentioned, the core protection growth has been 26%. As you're kind of recalibrating or retriangulating the numbers, there has been a degrowth in the health product. Largely, actually, post the changes to product regulations on 1st October, because of the regulatory changes, there were certain weaknesses which came in the overall construct from a consumer perspective in this product. That's actually led to some bit of a weakness in this health fixed benefit plan that we had kind of launched. We continue to keep looking for innovative ways and mechanisms of improving the health product.
As things stand today, there has been small degrowth in this particular segment. Whereas on riders, I think it's not just riders on protection, but it is riders on unit-linked designs, riders on non-PAR savings designs, even riders on PAR. These are all ingrained as part of our conversation because effectively this helps enhance the sum assured of the product, which continues to be an important need from a consumer's perspective. That journey will continue. It's an evolution. Industry is kind of evolving to some of these trends that actually are very known trends, at least in the Southeast Asian market. At least for our country, rider, which is augmenting sum assured, is becoming a very critical conversation and being accepted by the consumers as well.
On banks, it's an overall. I think if you really look at all the segments of choices, whether it is protection, annuity, traditional product, there has been a positive lift. It's an element of focus, which actually we have also brought along in very close alignment with our bank partners. We do expect that we will continue holding on to these momentums. On operating variance, I think you must have used some computations around assumptions around unwind and VNB growth to kind of come to a large operating variance number. But I'll just correct you that the unwind from 8.4% has come off to 8.3%. So there is a positive operating variance, but it is not of a very large quantum. It's more like a double-digit number.
Got it. Thank you. Just one housekeeping question. If you can split your offline APE break-up between direct and agency?
Sorry. What was that question?
I asked that if you can split your offline APE.
I will provide that to you separately. I just don't have it handy right away.
Got it. Thank you, everyone, and all the best.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you have a fresh chat and want to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Mohit Mangal from Centrum. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the positivity. Am I audible?
Very audible.
Yeah. First of all, yeah. First of all, I mean, congratulations to Sumit sir for the new role and Prashant sir for the future endeavors. So I've got two questions. First is that, have you done any repricing in the protection segment? Also wanted to understand what is the proportion of ROP in the protection business. Secondly, we have seen the proprietary channel's growth has been low if I compare with, say, 25% annual numbers. So two things in this. What do you think the proportion of the app that you launched will help in this in the growth? As well as what are the strategies in growing this proprietary space? If you could just elaborate, that would be helpful. Thank you.
So firstly, on protection repricing, the answer is yes. And protection repricing at various segment cohorts, wherever the opportunity kind of allows you to do it in a calibrated manner, keeping competition and demand in play, we keep doing it. And we have done so even this quarter as well. And this is nothing new.
Even in the previous quarters, I can say quarter three, quarter four, quarter one, each of these quarters, wherever the opportunity, the segment opens up, we continue to keep repricing it. On ROP, actually, there is a big opportunity to improve here. Our return of premium actually has come down to more like 10% levels. So we do expect, as we know, to try to focus in our own channels. This mix should improve. Quarter one is a small quarter, so I guess it's not like a big trend that you should see. It is just that there is some opportunity available for us to expand in this particular thing. On proprietary, it's going on the APE side.
I think I will request, and I indicated at the start of the call as a response to one of the participants, that it is largely concentrated in the specific channel, which is e-commerce, and also on one particular line of business, the savings business. Otherwise, the offline proprietary channel momentum has been quite robust, growing at 18% levels, and we expect that to remain in these range bounds even going forward as well. With respect to e-commerce, we are quite confident that as the year progresses through various innovative ways and strategies of product and kind of combining features of both market opportunities plus guarantees and protection component, we will come back on our growth trends in that particular segment as well. The app at this point in time is more an app for engagement with the consumers and kind of building the consumers.
Right now, our use case thinking and thought process there is more around enabling strong customer service. And if you take a life cycle view of it, a better engaged consumer will definitely provide us opportunity for new sales also going forward so as to drive our policy density and penetration. But these are just early days. I think right now we are only focused on ensuring that the app is meaningful to the consumer and the consumer continues to engage on multiple aspects of the app. The app, as Prashant mentioned, has fairly feature-rich features, actually provides a lot of health and associated services, which has been actually made enabled to all our consumers for any charge to them.
And we are hoping that this engagement will develop and build further, which initially should see better outcomes on both persistency and also the customer service cost that the organization actually incurs. Upsell definitely a use case, but I think you have to be patient and to take very long horizon views of overall lifetime value of consumers. We do expect that to pan out, but nothing that I can comment on the near term on that.
Understood. Thanks, and wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Neeraj Toshniwal from UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. My question is regarding on persistency. We wanted to check which particular channel has seen kind of a slip in terms of lower persistency. And has there been any impact of higher ticket sales which was done in March 2023, which other competitors highlighted that because of that also persistency has been lower? So are we also seeing a partial impact on this? Or it's only all new impact we are seeing? We wanted to build more quality tech from India.
Yeah. Thanks, Neeraj, for that question. This is a bit secular kind of impact across channels. So there is no specific channel that I can point out and say there's a sharp drop or anything like that. And we've also seen this more on the traditional side of policy where some bit of collection has been a little slow to start with. But having said, as every month is progressing, we are actually also seeing improvements in collection trends overall.
With respect to your comment around March 2023 base, I think I did answer that question more possibly indirectly, that the proportion of greater than 5 lakh ticket size definitely has reduced in the business. And that actually has those greater than 5 lakh always used to be higher persistency policy. So some bit of effect is also because of that.
Got it. And if you can refresh the memory on where is the counter share in Axis Bank right now? And I just wanted some color on that.
It continues to be in that range-bound of 65%-70% levels.
So it becomes a system.
Yeah.
Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for the day, and I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for being on our call. We look forward to more such interactions. Have a good day and a nice weekend as well. Bye.
Thank you. On behalf of Max Financial Services Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect the line.