AMP chief executive Andrew Mohl acknowledged yesterday that life companies faced a challenge from the banks in one of their traditional strongholds, the risk insurance market.Mohl also announced he would leave AMP at the end of 2007 after five years in the job. AMP reported flat earnings and a fall in market share in its risk business, which includes life cover, income protection, trauma and disability insurance, and Mohl said there was some room for improvement there.AMP's Australian contemporary wealth protection business, its risk insurance division, made a profit of $59 million for the six months to June - unchanged from the previous corresponding period and down a little from the December half. The group's market share fell from 11.2 to 10.9 per cent.Mohl defended the performance, saying AMP had the most profitable risk insurance business in the Australian market. Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Comminsure has been Australia's biggest risk insurer for some time and the risk insurance divisions of the other big banks are growing. The banks have invested in automated application processes and have developed successful cross-sell strategies, packaging life cover with home loans and income protection with credit cards. Mohl said AMP had invested in automation, making it much easier for planners and customers to complete an application. He said risk insurance remained a core business for the company and he said there was strong potential for organic growth, given high levels of underinsurance in the community.He said another positive sign for AMP was that it had picked up some "big wins" in corporate superannuation and this would help the risk business through group sales of life cover.Australian contemporary wealth protection's $59 million of profit went towards AMP's total interim operating earnings of $460 million, which were up 35 per cent on the previous corresponding period.The company increased its return on equity by 21 percentage points to 38.7 per cent.  Its cost to income ratio was 36.5 per cent. Net cashflow into funds was $2.4 billion.