Desjardins Financial Security (DFS) today reported 94.1% growth in insurance sales since the beginning of 2006.

At the end of the third quarter, insurance sales totalled $201 million, for a $97.4 million increase over the company’s results on Sept. 30, 2005. DFS said the increase was due primarily to the signing of major group and business insurance contracts, particularly during the second quarter of the year.

Revenues were also up, totalling $2,367.7 million compared with $2,313.9 million in 2005. While sales and premiums are up in Quebec, it’s the other Canadian provinces that have reported the biggest increases. Assets under management and administration were up 20.4% to stand at $23 billion, an improvement of $3.9 over the same time last year.

DFS generated another strong return on shareholder equity, which stood at 20.2%. Elsewhere, net income for the third quarter of 2006 stood at $39.4 million, which brings total net income recorded since the beginning of the year to $108.6 million.

At the end of the first nine months of 2005, continuing operations had generated net income of $116.6 million. This was due in part to the positive impact of non-recurring items from a reversal of provisions for losses in the amount of $12.5 million following the settlement of impaired loans. The share of DFS’s net income attributable to the ultimate shareholders, the Desjardins caisses, totalled $106 million.

“Desjardins Financial Security wants to double its market share outside Quebec by the end of 2008. Our third quarter results indicate we’re on the right track and that our efforts to achieve this goal are not interfering in any way with our growth in Quebec, where we continue to strengthen our leadership position quarter after quarter,” said Richard Fortier, DFS president & COO, in a news release.

At the end of the first nine months of 2006, net income for the group insurance sector, which includes insurance plans for groups and businesses, as well as group plans offered in financial institutions like the Desjardins caisses, stood at $78.2 million versus $79.1 million a year ago.

In group and business insurance, the enrolment of several groups with 1,000 and more insureds boosted sales dramatically to $174.5 million, more than doubling the figures ($78.4 million) recorded over the same period in 2005.

Sales outside Quebec alone totalled $138.6 million. Premiums were $77.6 million higher than those collected over the same period in 2005 to stand at $906.4 million, the result of sales from the past twelve months and the groups’ natural growth.

Elsewhere, the volume of premiums from plans offered through financial institutions, particularly credit insurance plans, totalled $343.2 million, an improvement of $17.9 million over last year. The total volume of insured credit, both in loan life insurance and loan disability insurance, remains up. Sales totalled $85 million, figures similar to those recorded in 2005.