Bank of Ireland Life Reports Strong New Business Growth for Half-Year 2004

Highlights:

Commenting on the sales results, Brian Forrester, Managing Director, Bank of Ireland Life said:"We are delighted with the results, having outperformed the market across all major categories. It is a difficult and competitive market at the moment and our new business growth of 43% has been achieved by focusing on delivering value to our customers and the efforts of our staff in providing first class service. We are starting to see growing investor confidence and this has enabled us to boost product sales across all customer channels, resulting in a three percent growth in market share.  We are also seeing a 'flight to quality', with consumers and brokers looking for the reassurance and security of a market leader."

Date: 25thof August 2004

For reference contact:

Contact: Mary Brennan
Group Corporate Communications
Tel. 01 -6043838
Mob. 087 2833646                                            

Contact: Claire Devine
Bank of Ireland Life
Tel. 01 6172711
Mob. 086 6182045

Bank of Ireland Life Reports Strong New Business Growth

for Half-Year 2004

Bank of Ireland Life (which incorporates New Ireland Assurance), Ireland's leading retail life and pensions provider, today (25th of August 2004), announced results for the half-year to 30 June 2004.  Overall, new business sales (Annual Premium Equivalent - APE) have grown by 43% to €139.6m   compared to the same period last year.  This represents an overall market share growth of approximately 3% to over 24%. (Industry half-year market share figures will not be available until September).

Single Premium Investment Business grew very strongly, up some 46% to €330.9 million, highlighting considerable momentum towards unit-linked products. 

There was also excellent growth in regular premium pensions sales, which rose 54% to €70.7 million, and single premium pension sales were up 23% to €105 million. Within this, Bank of Ireland Life has reached its stated target of selling 1 in 4 PRSA policies in the market.

Commenting on the results, Brian Forrester, Managing Director, Bank of Ireland Life said: "We are particularly happy with our success in the pensions market. We have invested heavily in a state of the art information technology system and an excellent online information and administration service that allow us to deliver the level of service which employers are demanding today. This combined with the strong fund performance of Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) positions us very well in what is a very challenging and competitive market. We are continuing to sell around one in four of all PRSAs - however while the legal obligations around PRSAs have acted as a catalyst to employers to make some form of pension provision, we're finding that many employers are continuing to favour traditional group defined contribution schemes for their employees."

Bank of Ireland Life also enjoyed a strong performance in regular premium savings business with regular savings sales increasing by 117% to €11.7 million, reflecting a strong post-SSIA market recovery.

Forrester continued: "Growing investor confidence, stemming from the recovery in the economy and stronger performance from stock markets, has begun to make unit linked products more attractive. The SSIA scheme took a huge amount of money out of the market, making it a difficult environment for growing regular savings sales, so we are delighted that our Smart Choice regular savings product has done so well. 

With the market leading investment capability of Bank of Ireland Asset Management underpinning our pension, investment and savings products, we have an especially strong offering available through all our sales channels. With this combination of strong products, effective distribution channels and a high quality advisory service, backed by the financial strength of Bank of Ireland, I believe we're well positioned to continue to lead and grow in this market."

Date: 25thof August 2004

For reference contact:

Contact: Mary Brennan
Group Corporate Communications
Tel. 01 -6043838
Mob. 087 2833646                                            

Contact: Claire Devine
Bank of Ireland Life
Tel. 01 6172711
Mob. 086 6182045

Bank of Ireland Life

Sales Breakdown

Combination Equity Bond is a Bank of Ireland Tracker Bond Product sold by the Bancassurance Sales-force

Figures exclude "Investment Only" Business

Regular Premium savings figures exclude the Government portion of SSIA savings

Annual Premium Equivalent (APE) is the industry standard for calculating overall sales and is calculated by totalling regular premium sales and 10% of single premium sales