Annuity fee income at bank holding companies shot up 28.4% in the first quarter, to more than $748.2 million, according to the Michael White-ABIA Bank Annuity Fee Income Report.
In the year-earlier quarter, bank holding companies reported sales of $582.6 million. First-quarter annuity commissions rose 2.6% sequentially from the $729.5 million recorded in the fourth quarter. The report was released July 18.
The $748.2 million in annuity sales income marks the most bank holding companies have garnered since the first quarter of 2007.
The report, compiled by Michael White Associates and sponsored by the American Bankers Insurance Association, tracks annuity sales and commissions from 6,850 commercial and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-supervised banks and 942 top-tier bank holding companies.
In the first quarter, 40% of the bank holding companies sold annuities. Their $748.2 million in annuity commissions and fees accounted for 11.9% of their total mutual fund and annuity income ($6.31 billion) and 15.8% of total bank holding company insurance sales volume ($4.73 billion).
Of the banks surveyed, 12% sold annuities in the quarter, earning $204.2 million in annuity commissions, or 27.2% of the banking industry's total annuity fee income. Banks' annuity production rose 9.7% year over year.
Seventy-four percent of bank holding companies with more than $10 billion of assets earned first-quarter annuity commissions of $708.3 million, constituting 94.7% of total annuity commissions reported by the banking industry, up 29.3% from $547.8 million in annuity fee income a year earlier. Bank holding companies with assets between $1 billion and $10 billion recorded a rise of 13.9% in annuity fee income.
