Pension sales tumble 25%

Both single and regular premium business tumbled between July and September, despite growing optimism over the state of the UK economy. Regular premium individual savings sales fell by a quarter, from £818m in Q2 to just £610m in Q3. Sales were down 23% compared with the third quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, single premium pensions business dropped 24% to £3.3bn over the same period. Year-on-year, new business is also down 24%. Decumulation sales fell 8.5% over the quarter, and are down 21% on an annual basis to £2.8bn. In the protection market, new single premium individual prote...