Firm born out of forced merger

Irish Life assurance was born in 1939, when the economy turned and put a hole in the balance sheet of Irish assurance companies.

Four assurance companies had to amalgamate: City of Dublin Assurance Company, Irish Life and General Assurance Company, Irish National Assurance Company and the Munster and Leinster Assurance Company.

The intention was to release the shares on to the market but it took until 1991 to eventually float the company.

Then minister of finance, Seán MacEntee, at first held 18% of the company, but by 1947, that had risen to 90% due to restructuring of Irish Life. The restructuring saw Irish Life take over the shares held by British companies Brittanic, Prudential, Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society, Pearl, and Refuge.

Irish Life began expanding into the English market in the 1960s. The company acquired City of Westminster Assurance. Irish Life sold the City of Westminster Assurance book to Chesnara for £47.7m in 2005.

The 1990s marked a period of serious overseas expansion for Irish Life. The company picked up subsidiaries in Norway, Hungary, France and in the US.

By 1999, the company had convinced its shareholders that the branch network of Irish Permanent was worth the risk to merge the two companies into one.

The company said “an immediate benefit of merging the two companies is the creation of one of the most comprehensive distribution operations in the financial services market.”

The shareholders greenlighted and Irish Life and Permanent was born. Two years later Irish Life and Permanent acquired TSB Bank from the State, creating Permanent TSB.

On Mar 30, 2011, the group suspended its shares from trading owing to a €2bn hole in its balance sheet. The always-profitable insurance arm was yesterday sold to Canada Life, which has operated in this country since 1903.