Cross-border life and pensions industries record sales of €15bn

Sales of cross-border life and pensions from companies based in the State exceeded €15 billion in 2006, an increase of 25 per cent on the year before, according to new figures compiled by actuarial consultants Life Strategies.

The Republic's cross-border life and pensions industry is now almost double the size of the domestic life and pensions market, which enjoys sales of €8 billion.

Sales of cross-border life assurance products are also increasing at a faster rate than in the buoyant domestic life and pensions market, where new sales increased by 21 per cent in 2006.

The 34 companies writing cross-border life business recorded an average of €444 million in new sales last year, up from €377 million in 2005. Nine companies recorded new sales of more than €500 million each.

Further growth is expected in 2007 following the news that large US insurance group MetLife had secured regulatory approval and began writing cross-border business from here in January.

Two more life companies are in the process of securing approval from the financial regulator, while a third company is conducting a feasibility study with a view to establishing a cross-border operation here.

Two companies, Standard Life International and Axa Life Europe, started writing cross-border business from the State in 2006.

Italy is the largest target market, but the €3 billion increase in total market sales last year came from elsewhere, with sales into Italy remaining flat. The UK ranks second, but the bulk of the growth last year came from other European countries, according to Life Strategies.

The 2006 performance, which Life Strategies described as "impressive", followed 33 per cent growth in 2005 and 43 per cent growth in 2004. Sales in the sector have increased every year since 1995.

Life Strategies director Jim Murphy said the financial regulator's principles-based (rather than rules-based) approach to regulation - as well as the low corporation tax rate - was proving attractive to overseas companies.

Mr Murphy attributed the "impressive" performance of the cross-border market to sales of two types of products: portfolio bonds, which have some tax advantages for investors in other jurisdictions, and GMXBs, a kind of annuity product with guaranteed minimum benefits that are popular in the US. MetLife, The Hartford, Axa and Aegon all sell GMXBs from the Republic.