Irish Life chairman Mr Conor McCarthy told shareholders at yesterday's annual meeting that there had been a recovery in sales in the company's Irish retail division since the start of the year.
The meeting, which lasted just 35 minutes, was a much quieter affair than last year's stormy gathering which took place in the middle of a dispute between the company and its sales force. The dispute with staff in the personal finance division impacted seriously on sales last year.
"I am happy to say that is now behind us and sales have picked up from the turn of the year to a point where they are now running somewhat ahead of expectations and we are very pleased with this," Mr McCarthy said.
He said that overall trading in the first four months of the year had been satisfactory and in terms of profits, the outlook for the year was in line with expectations.
Mr McCarthy paid tribute to Mr David Kingston, who recently retired as managing director after 15 years, and welcomed his successor Mr David Went.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Went said Irish Life was always interested in looking at opportunities to improve its distribution capability in the Irish market. He declined to say which banks Irish Life might be interested in buying and noted that acquiring distribution channels through a branch network was only one way of doing it.
Mr Went also confirmed that Irish Life had reached agreement with TSB to offer a deposit facility to Irish Life customers.
Full details of the arrangement will be announced shortly but it is understood that Irish Life policyholders will be offered a Privilege Account with TSB which will pay the same rate of interest as a 30-day deposit account but will have instant access. Irish Life pays out some £200 million each year on maturing policies and investments and cheques are usually lodged to customers' accounts. But now customers will have the option of opening an Irish Lifebranded account with TSB on special terms while deciding what to do with their money.
Mr Went described it as "an experiment to see what the reaction of policyholders might be".
Asked whether the move might point to some sort of link-up between Irish Life and TSB, Mr Went said Irish Life had put this out to tender through KPMG and TSB had come back with the best overall terms.
The meeting also passed two special resolutions allowing for the establishment of a savings-related share scheme for both Irish and British employees of the company.
One shareholder complained about Irish Life's policy of technical accounting. Mr McCarthy said the accounts were presented in that fashion as it was a requirement of law.
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