hyderabad every month sunita kiran saves rs 8000 so that she can pay her annual life insurance premium without having to bother her husband at the end of the year this she has been doing for the past few years without faili dont care whether i have all the luxuries of life but my insurance policy is my lifeline she said not just kiran but many hyderabadis have increasingly become concerned about securing their futures as well as those of their loved onesa comparison with the rest of the country reveals that city residents are the largest purchasers of life insurance policies the data from sbi life insurance is a heartening indication of riskaverse behaviour of residentsup till june this year 33000 life insurance policies were sold in hyderabad with delhi standing second with 28000 policies mumbai saw only 15000 policies being sold surprisingly in hyderabad the preference for life insurance is uniform across all strata of society with several customers easily spending more than rs 1 lakh as premium the hyderabad region has seen a yearonyear growth of 107 per cent in the first quarter against the same period last year the average growth in other regions was around 50 per cent during the same period while company heads ascribe it to a very strong network of agents and bank branches a higher degree of awareness and understanding of their finances among citizens may be another reason for the trend officials say our hyderabad reg i o n h a s been one of the most vibrant regions for sbi lifeamong 14 regions pan india hyderabad contributes the highest volume for us which is close to 13 to 14 per cent of our overall volume of business said arijit basu managing director and chief executive officer sbi life insurancethe company has also put in place a system of agents catering to specific segmentsbuying a policy requires revealing financial details which many might not be comfortable sharing with anyone hence we have divided our agents as per segments highend buyers who might be familiar with an agent clubbing at the same club may find it easier to buy it from them said basuunique strategies ensured the insurancer recorded the highest growth rate of 69 per cent in the individual new business premium as the industry reported a growth of 16 per cent the company also announced its embedded value as rs 12999 crore in march this yearthe fact that the sale of policies across income groups remains the same makes hyderabad buyers unique unlike other cities where maximum clientele are in the midsegmentas you go up in the higher income segment the ticket size increases while average ticket size in the segment is rs 65000 to rs 70000 it might cross a crore in the topmost market in fact we get a number of clients from the higher income segment which was not the case earlier said debasis chatterjee regional director sbi life ap and telangana