Zurich Life reports 12% leap in sales for first half of year

SALES AT Zurich Life, formerly known as Eagle Star, increased by 12 per cent in the first six months of the year, boosting the Zurich Financial Services group’s global life new business and increasing its share of the Irish market to 17 per cent.

Slightly ahead of a market average of 11 per cent, Zurich Life grew its life and pensions business by 12 per cent up to € 106.5 million in the first half of the year.

Pension sales accounted for € 86.6 million of this total, boosting the company’s share of this market to 18 per cent, up from 15 per cent at the end of 2009.

Zurich also grew its market share in the life sector to 13 per cent, with new sales of protection, regular premium savings and single premium products up by 23 per cent at € 20 million.

The company continued to see strong growth in its single premium pensions business, which increased by 64 per cent to € 510.5 million, due to demand for personal retirement savings accounts (PRSAs), approved retirement funds (ARFs) and buy-out bonds.

Zurich reported particular interest in PRSA products, with annual premium new business up 24 per cent to € 12.8 million, and single premium new business more than doubling to €70.4 million.

With a 45 per cent share of the PRSA market, Zurich is calling on the Government to consider adopting PRSAs as its product of choice as part of its auto-enrolment strategy under the National Pensions Framework to boost pension coverage.

“Introducing a new pension product and a Government-developed IT administration system would entail major risks in terms of ‘time to delivery’ and cost,” Brendan Johnston, pensions director with Zurich Life, said yesterday. The firm also reported strong growth in its cross-border life business, following the establishment of its European manufacturing hub in Dublin in 2009, which employs 35 people with an additional 25 positions to be filled in 2010.

New cross-border sales totalled € 45.7 million for the first half of 2010, up from € 1.9 million last year.

Paul Haran, head of the hub, noted the products launched from Ireland into the UK and Italian markets “have been great successes to date”, and he added the firm has a number of new cross-border products in the pipeline.

When Zurich’s new Irish and cross-border business is combined, it shows a 57 per cent increase, with total sales at € 152.2 million.

This pushes global new sales business at the Zurich group up by 18 per cent to $392 million for the first half of the year.