KBC has reported robust sales for its unit-linked life range during the final quarter of 2012. The bank said that there was a 16% year-on-year increase in the sales of life insurance products, due mainly to higher sales of unit-linked products.
Net fee and commission income amounted to €1.3bn in 2012, up 13% compared to last year, once again largely due to the successful sales of unit-linked products. Assets under management stood at €155bn, up 4% on the figure from one year earlier due to a positive investment performance, said KBC in a statement.
"The continued alignment of the group with its core strategy was the main focus for the last quarter of 2012," said Johan Thijs (pictured), CEO of KBC. "Fee income went up significantly and insurance products sold well, particularly in the life insurance business," he added.
Unit-linked life products have overtaken notes and funds - traditionally the best-selling products in Belgium - with market insiders confirming that this is due to the bank's strategy of trying to maximize funding, rather than diversifying in securities as requested by Ucits.
The best-selling product of 2012 was KBC-Life MI Interest Multiplier 2. This eight-year product struck in June and collected €285m during its subscription period, while KBC-Life MI Best Of Quality Stocks 4 (€188m) and KBC-Life MI Interest 18 (€182m) also made it to the top ten sellers which, incidentally, comprised only life-wrapped products (Branch 23) and included nine KBC products.
The jump in sales of unit-linked life products in recent years is backed up by figures compiled by SRP which show that KBC launched 64 unit-linked life products worth €3.9bn (an average of €61.4m per product) in 2012, compared to 32 products with a sales volume of €1.5bn (€46.9m per product) in 2011 and just 21 products worth €322m (€15.3m per product) during the whole of 2010.