Income earned from the sale of annuities at bank holding companies nationwide rose 29 percent from $2.02 billion in 2007 to a record $2.61 billion in 2008, according to a new report.

Compiled by Michael White Associates of Pennsylvania and sponsored by American Bankers Insurance Association (ABIA), the report measures and benchmarks the banking industry’s performance in generating annuity fee income. It is based on data from all 7,495 commercial and FDIC-supervised banks and 880 large top-tier bank holding companies operating on Dec. 31, 2008.

Of the 880 holding companies, 384 participated in annuity sales activities during the year. Their $2.61 billion in annuity commissions and fees constituted 12.3 percent of their total mutual fund and annuity income of $21.26 billion and 18.3 percent of total holding company insurance sales volume (the sum of annuity and insurance brokerage income) of $14.23 billion.

Of the 7,495 banks, 1,037 participated in annuity sales activities. Those participating banks earned $1 billion in annuity commissions or 38.3 percent of the banking industry’s total annuity fee income.