Bank of Ireland Life, which includes New Ireland Assurance, has reported an 11 per cent rise in total sales in 2003 and claims to have made substantial inroads in the PRSA market.

The company said yesterday that new business sales grew to €230 million last year when the effect of SSIA sales in 2002 are stripped out.

When these are included, the bank's new business sales fell by 22 per cent.

Bank of Ireland Life's managing director, Mr Brian Forrester, said it had put in a very satisfactory performance against a difficult market backdrop.

"I am confident that when industry figures are available they will demonstrate that Bank of Ireland Life has retained its strong position with a market share of about 21 per cent."

The group's annual premium equivalent, the industry standard to measure sales, showed a 54 per cent rise to €53.8 million.

Pension sales increased by 10 per cent to €110.4 million, up from €100 million in the previous 12 months.

This included a 54 per cent increase in new group pensions to €53.8 million, and single premium pensions sales up 18 per cent to €225 million from €190 million in 2002.

Bank of Ireland claimed to have won more than 27 per cent of the new PRSA market, with 15,700 employer designations and over 5,100 individual PRSA sales. Mr Forrester said he was delighted with this achievement.

Sales of protection policies rose by 3 per cent to €29.1 million, it said yesterday.

Lump sum investment products continued to be affected by uncertainty in equity markets with total sales up just 3 per cent.

Mr Forrester expected the industry figure for lump sum investment business would be well down overall on last year.