Investor demands helps boost Irish Life profits

Irish Life has said that demand from investors for products to help beat low returns from low deposit rates currently offered by banks had helped boost the profits at the pensions and investments firm.

It said yesterday it had contributed CAD$80m (€57m) to the profits of its Canadian parent group Great-West Lifeco in the first quarter, an increase of 54% from a year earlier.

The Government separated the profitable Irish Life from the pensions and banking group Irish Life & Permanent at the height of the financial crisis, and subsequently completed the sale of the firm to Great-West Lifeco, in 2013.