Zurich Life sees new business rise by 1%

ZURICH Life (Ireland) chief executive, Michael Brennan, has said that the company — formerly known as Eagle Star — is capable of growing further this year after seeing both market share and new business levels rise strongly during 2008.

The Blackrock, Co Dublin-headquartered Irish arm of the international financial services group, yesterday reported a 1% increase in annual new business levels to €218.5 million. This compared to a 30% fall in the total market.

Overall market share at Zurich’s Irish operations — across the life assurance and pensions sectors — was up by 34%, last year, reaching 12.6%. The business had a market share of 9.7% in 2007.

Last year’s rise was chiefly on the back of another good annual showing from Zurich Ireland’s pensions business (which still operates under the Eagle Star name). More than 80% of the new business wins came through pension customers, consolidating the company’s ]position as one of the leading pension providers in the country.

“It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where all the new business has been coming from, but we have seen a good flow of larger pension scheme business switching to us in the last year,” commented Mr Brennan.

Regarding potential performance this year, Mr Brennan added that Zurich Ireland still had “a lot of momentum” built up from last year to help it cope with the current economic uncertainties.