Max Financial

Max Financial Services Limited reported a revenue (excluding investment income) of ₹24,625 crores for the nine months ended December 31, 2025, marking an 18% growth. Consolidated profit after tax stood at ₹137 crore, impacted by fair value chain and GST expenses. Gross written premiums grew 18% to ₹25,195 crores, with renewal premiums up 17% to ₹15,591 crores. The company's Embedded Value (EV) reached ₹28,110 crores, a 16% year-on-year increase, and Assets Under Management (AUM) grew 12% to ₹1.93 lakh crore. VNB margins expanded from 21.9% last year to 23.6% in 9M FY26, with Q3 FY26 margins at 24.1%.

The company's strategy focuses on consistent and broad-based outcomes, with individual adjusted first year premium growing 20% in 9M FY26, driven by an 18% increase in policies. This growth is double the overall industry growth of 10%, leading to a 53 basis point expansion in private market share to 9.8%. Retail APE grew 30% in Q3 FY26, with proprietary channels (agency, online, cross-sell) growing 52% and partnership channels growing 13%. The NRI segment contributed approximately 12% of individual adjusted first year premium, and the company received regulatory approvals to establish an office in GIFT City to strengthen its presence.

Product innovation remains a key lever, with a focus on a well-balanced portfolio aligned with long-term protection, retirement, and savings needs. Retail protection grew 99% in Q3, with pure protection up 95% and riders over 100%, benefiting from GST-related tailwinds. Group credit protection business scaled steadily with 45% growth in Q3. The annuity business demonstrated strong momentum, growing 141% in Q3 and 107% in 9M FY26. The Q3 APE product mix was balanced with ULIP at 38%, non-par savings at 18%, protection at 15%, annuity at 10%, and participating products at 20%.

Axis Max Life maintains a customer-centric approach, reflected in its industry-leading persistency. As per Q2 FY26 rankings, the company was top-ranked in 13-month persistency by number of policies and second in 25-month and 37-month persistency. In Q3 FY26, 13-month persistency stood at 85%, and 25-month persistency improved to an all-time high of 76%, a 420 basis point YoY improvement. Net Promoter Score (NPS) increased to 58 (from 52 at FY25 exit), with touchpoint NPS improving to 16 (from 55) and relationship NPS to 55 (from 50), indicating strong customer confidence.

The company is heavily investing in digitization, AI, and data engineering to enhance customer experience, underwriting, persistency, and operational efficiency. GenAI-powered e-mail bots doubled 1-day ticket closures from 20% to 40%. The customer app has 6 lakh downloads and 3 lakh monthly active users, with cumulative transactions exceeding ₹50 crore. Website digital NPS reached a record 74, up 9 points. Voice AI-led transcription analytics enabled 100% automated audits for renewal collection, and straight-through processing (STP) for non-early claims reached 36%, surpassing industry benchmarks for claims up to ₹7.5 lakhs.

Following the approval of Insurance Act amendments (Sabka Bima Sabka Raksha Act 2025), which allow for increased FDI limits and insurer mergers with non-insurers, Max Financial Services Limited received in-principle board approval to initiate the amalgamation process for Axis Max Life and MFSL. Management anticipates the process, from the date of scheme filing, to take approximately 12 to 14 months. They noted that the structure is relatively simplistic due to MFSL's equity ownership in the underlying entity and minimal material balance sheet complexities.