New life sales were up by 21%, driven mainly by higher pension production as a result of strong market propositions in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In the Americas, new life sales were flat on a US dollar basis, primarily driven by lower universal life sales due to product withdrawals and product redesign, resulting from the focus on value creation. Gross deposits remained strong particularly in both the variable annuity and retail mutual fund businesses in the United States and Aegon Asset Management. Net deposits, excluding run-off businesses, amounted to EUR 3.6 billion and were driven primarily by variable annuity and retirement deposits in the United States and third party inflow at Aegon Asset Management.