This reflected fourth quarter sales of £120m, down from the £180m in the third quarter which had suggested some early signs of recovery after second quarter’s £110m. LGII’s offshore bond sales fell just 7% in the first three quarters of 2012, year-on-year, versus an industry decline of around 27%.
David Fagan, chief executive of Legal & General International (Ireland) said: "Sustained sales in the second half of the year have delivered a solid performance for the year as a whole despite weak investment market confidence in the first half of 2012 and some RDR related distraction in the adviser community, which had a significant impact on the UK offshore bond market over the year."
In the last quarter of 2012 LGII set out its approach to commission payments on offshore bonds with start dates pre-RDR and launched facilitated adviser charging for its International Portfolio Bond new business.
In the third quarter the company stated that increased access to its offshore bond via multiple platforms and discretionary fund managers appeared to have paid dividends: "This meant that customers could undertake in specie transfers into International Portfolio Bond on the Cofunds platform, Seven Investment Management Platform, Skandia Investment Solutions platform and the Ascentric wrap platform.”
