Standard Life's Irish operations yesterday reported net effective income of £35.3 million for its financial year which ended November 15th, 2000 - a 47 per cent increase on the previous year's results.

Effective income is annual premium income and 10 per cent of single premium income.

Personal pension business grew by 53 per cent to more than £5 million, with corporate pensions up by 43 per cent to £16.35 million.

During the year, the firm added a range of approved retirement funds and approved minimum retirement funds to its post retirement products. New effective income from these products added just over £1 million to results, the firm said.

"The early results are very positive and we are expecting this area to continue to grow in importance," said Mr Rory O'Riordan, general manager of Standard Life.

"The launch of two new investment funds during the year - UK Property Fund and The European Protection Fund - have helped to boost our sales of single premium investments by 260 per cent to £70 million."

Mr O'Riordan said the company was particularly pleased with the results given the time and energy spent defending its mutual status during the year.

He said Standard Life's review of the outcome of the mutuality vote continued but it was taking measures to address the issues raised by its policyholders during the debate.

"One such initiative was the announcement of our `mortgage endowment promise' in September," said Mr O'Riordan. "This followed a similar initiative introduced in the UK after concerns expressed by customers."

The basis of the promise is that, provided the firm earned on average at least 6 per cent after tax each year on the assets in which the policy was invested, every mortgage endowment policy would meet its targeted value, Mr O'Riordan said.