Our aim is to provide clear, transparent information for our customers about Phoenix Ireland.

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In May 2011 the Irish Finance (No2) Act 2011 introduced a new, temporary levy on pension funds established in Ireland. The levy takes the form of a 0.6% tax on the value of pension funds. The levy was applied on the value of the funds at 30 June 2011 and will be applied on the same date in each of the following three years, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Consideration has been given to the implications of this legislation on our customers and details of the impact are shown below:

Policies invested in Unit Linked Funds
We applied the first levy to our unit linked pension funds on 1 July 2011. The effect of applying the first levy is that, from 1 July 2011 onwards, fund prices are reduced by 0.6% compared to the prices that would have been published had the levy not existed. This overrides guarantees on cash funds where the bid price would otherwise be guaranteed not to fall.

Policies invested in With-Profits Funds (Traditional and Unitised)
We will make allowance for the levy when we calculate bonus rates and surrender values for the affected with-profits policies, and these will be generally be lower as a result.

You do not need to take any action as we will pay this levy directly to the Revenue Commissioners.

Proposed transfer of all NPI Limited and certain National Provident Life Limited policies to Phoenix Life Limited

You may have heard in the news that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is to ban the use of gender in insurance policies from the 21st of December 2012. This means that from that date Insurance Companies will no longer be able to offer different rates for males and females.

Phoenix will be studying the judgement in detail in order to understand how the decision affects our 6 million customers. While we will be compliant with the court's decision by 21st December 2012, we are not yet in a position to communicate the practical implications but will of course do so when these are known.

As always we would encourage Customers to seek independent financial advice when making decisions regarding their financial products.

The Irish Finance (No2) Bill was published on 19 May.

A levy has been introduced in the Bill as a temporary measure for four years and imposes an annual charge to stamp duty of 0.6% on the market value of assets under the management of approved Republic of Ireland (ROI) pension schemes.

We are currently considering the implications of this proposed legislation and further information will be available shortly.