UK - Legal & General says it sees "significant" growth opportunities in new products offering longevity products to larger pension schemes.

"We believe that there is an opportunity for significant additional growth in new products offering longevity risk management to larger schemes and we have seen early signs of increased activity in this area," L&G said.

And it saw high levels of sales and quotation activity in the bulk purchase annuity business.

"We completed more than 150 new policies, with an average case size of just over £3m. This lifted single premiums by 52% to £499m" from last year's £329m.

It said: "We believe there are further opportunities for Legal & General arising from evolution in the pensions arena. In the bulk purchase annuity market, we continue to see strong demand from pension funds seeking to manage mortality, investment and expense risk.

"Activity remains high and we believe there are early signs of greater demand from larger schemes."

Legal & General Investment Management's institutional fund management business gained £10.8bn in new business in the first half, a rise of 56% over the 2005 period. It added that £1.9bn of this was received from non- pension fund institutions.