MetLife has passed the £2.5 billion assets under management landmark.

Based on current product design, someone investing £100,000 with MetLife at its UK launch in January 2007 would have seen their capital guaranteed fund climb to £123,700 after all charges by the end of April – growth of 23% in the Secure Capital Value for pensions. By contrast the FTSE All Share has fallen 15% in the five years from May 2007.

The growth in the guaranteed Secure Capital Value was marginally ahead of the performance of the underlying fund as measured by Lipper at £123,400.

Between July 2008 and 2009 the guaranteed Secure Capital Value was £102,000 and remained above the underlying fund which hit a low of £94,500 in October 2008. Since then, the underlying fund has increased and the annual reviews have allowed the Secure Capital Value to lock in this growth.

The guarantee success has driven strong growth in assets under management which hit £2.572 billion at the end of March – growth of 15% from the £2.235 billion achieved at the beginning of 2012.

Assets under management at the end of MetLife’s first year of operation in the UK were just £39 million and have grown from then with a rise of 326% between January 2009 and 2010.

“Our long-term commitment to the UK retirement and investment market is underlined by the strong growth in assets under management with £2.5 billion the latest landmark,’ said Dominic Grinstead (pictured), managing director, MetLife UK. “Just two years ago it was £584 million.

“That has been driven by establishing guarantees in the UK financial services mainstream and has been achieved by delivering exactly what the products are designed to do. The Secure Capital Value growth underlines their value for consumers.

“We will continue to evolve our product range as we have done since launching in 2007 and to maintain our focus on innovation but can look back on a very strong start.”