THE Irish arm of financial services giant Standard Life generated a 17% year-on-year increase in life and pension sales in the first half of this year.

Insurer Standard Life has posted a 10% rise in pre-tax operating profit for the first half of the year to £182m (€221m).

FINANCIAL services giant Standard Life has reported an after-tax profit of £305 million (€334m) for 2009, representing a healthy swing back into the black after it generated after-tax losses of £134m in the previous year.

Standard Life today announced better than expected profits and said it planned to target a further £100m (€109m) of efficiency savings by 2012.

STANDARD Life Ireland significantly outperformed the Irish pensions and investments market last year, by generating annual sales growth of 5% against a combined market which fell nearly 30%.

British life and pensions group Standard Life revealed a fourth-quarter sales rebound today as it hailed the return of investor confidence in equities.

The FTSE 100 Index pushed to a fresh 13-month high today as investors were cheered by strong results from a raft of US companies.

Mining and property firms helped the FTSE 100 Index to rally by more than 1% today as the London market’s recent strong run showed no signs of ending.