Bank of Ireland Life sets benchmark as sales surge 43% to €139.6m

BANK of Ireland’s life and pensions arm set a high benchmark for rivals yesterday when it announced a 43% surge in sales in the first six months of the year.

Bank of Ireland Life, which includes New Ireland Assurance, estimated its share of the life and pensions market had risen from 21% to 24% during the half year. It generated new business worth €139.6 million, up from €97.7m in the first half of 2003.

Managing director Brian Forrester said the division had outperformed the market in all its major lines of business, which include savings and investments, pensions and Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) and mortgage protection.

The division said the 43% rise in sales should be seen in the context of the market growing by an estimated 14%. AIB’s Ark Life subsidiary reported growth of 10% over the same period, while Hibernian owner Aviva said revenues were up 13%.

Mr Forrester said the market was “difficult and competitive” but thanked a focus on customers, greater confidence in stock market-based investments and the efforts of staff for the strong performance.

He said consumers and brokers were actively seeking to do business with the market leaders, which he said provided greater reassurance and security than fringe players.

The bank had also invested heavily in IT to improve administration and provide higher levels of service to customers.

Sales of regular pensions rose 54% to €71m, while income from lump sum pension contributions was 23% ahead at €105m.

Lump sum investments were up 46% at €331m. Revenue from regular savings products doubled to almost €12m.

Mr Forrester said the government-sponsored SSIA savings scheme had taken “a huge amount of money” out of the market and made it more difficult to grow the regular savings side of the business.

Marketing director David Swanton said the increased pensions sales were driven by customers becoming more aware of the need to put pension arrangements in place. The bank added a further 3,000 customers to its PRSA base, bringing the total to 8,000, which represents roughly one-quarter of the total market to date.