Desjardins Financial Security today announced net income of $36.3 million for the first quarter ended March 31.

Income from insurance premiums continued to grow and stood at $618.1 million for an 11.7% increase over the same period in 2007, when DFS reported income of $553.4 million. Insurance sales totalled $51.1 million.

In the first quarter of 2008, the share of DFS’s net income attributable the Desjardins caisse totalled $35 million. Shareholder equity was 21.5%. Assets under management and administration stood at $22.5 billion.

DFS says its results were affected by the turbulence and uncertainty on the financial markets. Investments in asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) were written down to reflect the situation evolving on the markets. The resulting deterioration in net income for the first quarter of 2008 totalled $13.6 million. Excluding the impact of this deterioration, net income in the first quarter of 2008 would have been identical to the company’s results for the first three months of 2007.

In group insurance, the volume of group and business insurance premiums stood at $392.8 million for the first three months of 2008, an improvement of $53.9 million over last year’s results. Group and business insurance sales totalled $41.3 million.

In individual insurance, sales through the financial centre network of SFL Partner of Desjardins Financial Security, Desjardins Financial Security Independent Network and the Company’s caisse-dedicated financial security advisors amounted to $9.8 million, up $0.5 million over the March 31, 2007 results, for a 5.4% improvement. Gross premiums were $120.2 million, an increase of $3.8 million over the same period last year.

In savings, overall sales totalled $312.1 million. Sales of individual savings products amounted to $93.7 million, for a $9 million increase over the first three months of 2007, while group retirement savings sales stood at $55.4 million.