Staff at Isle of Man-based Friends Provident International (FPI) have been praised for making a significant contribution to the Group's 'encouraging set of results', revealed its latest trading update.

The Castletown-based company produced third quarter sales figures of ?47.8 million, an increase of 8% on the second quarter's sales and 30% on the first quarter, despite testing market conditions.

The improvement was underpinned by the company's performance in Asia, predominantly in Hong Kong where third quarter sales were up by ?4 million on the previous quarter at ?26 million.

FPI's new business for the first nine months of the year was ?128.8 million.

FPI General Manager Jonathan Hall (pictured) said he was proud of the efforts of the company's staff during a challenging period for the industry:

"The focus of staff has never wavered and the enormous technical and administrative support that the team here continunes to give to our international operations has helped underpin FPI's strong performance".

Trevor Matthews, Chief Executive Officer of the Friends Provident Group, said that the Company had made good progress in combating the recession in the life assurance industry:

"This is an encouraging set of results.  We have delivered increased quarter-on-quarter sales across the board of UK corporate, UK protection and our International business.  We are fully focused on winning new business based on product and service capabilities that continue to attract awards and industry accolades".

FPI, which employs 230 staff on the Island, recently won 10 out of 24 categories at the prestigious International Adviser International Life Awards in London.