“Given the accelerated pace of buyback activity in the first half of the year, we anticipate a modestly slower pace in the back half.”

In context

“e our Asia region sales outlook for the year. Looking to Latin America, adjusted earnings totaled $267 million, well above $97 million a year ago. Lower COVID claims, a favorable impact from inflation, a strong encaje and continued volume growth, all combined to generate substantial outperformance in the second quarter. Fundamental drivers in Latin America also remains strong with sales and PFOs up from a year ago on a constant currency basis by 19% and 26%, respectively. Moving to capital and cash. MetLife was active with capital management during the second quarter, and we returned more than $1.5 billion to shareholders through $408 million of common dividends and $1.1 billion of share repurchase. In the first half of 2022, MetLife repurchased approximately $2 billion of common stock. Given the accelerated pace of buyback activity in the first half of the year, we anticipate a modestly slower pace in the back half. There remains $2.5 billion outstanding on our current $3 billion authorization. MetLife continues to be well capitalized and highly liquid. At the end of the quarter, we had $4.5 billion of cash and liquid assets at our holding companies, which includes the proceeds from the sale of our Poland business, and we remain comfortably above our target cash buffer of $3 billion to $4 billion. Financial flexibility was further enhanced after the second quarter's end when we tapped the debt market raising $1 billion of 30-year paper and a well oversubscribed offering, another example of the value the market attributes to MetLife's financial strength. Turning to sustainability. At the end of last quarter, MetLife announced a broad set of DEI commitments designed to address the needs of the unders”