Standard Life in jobs pledge despite sharp sales decline

Published on Thursday 30 April 2009 09:41

LIFE and pensions giant Standard Life today said it will do all it can to secure jobs – despite reporting a sharp decline in sales.

The Edinburgh-based firm has already been hit hard by the declining value of its assets as a result of plunging stock markets.

And today it revealed that its overall life and pensions sales tumbled by a fifth to 3.6 billion in the three months to the end of March.

Although the firm admits that further job losses cannot be ruled out, it said it is committed to retaining staff wherever possible in order to allow it to be in a position to benefit from an upturn in the economy.

David Nish, Standard's finance director, said: "We have been very successful in redeploying staff to other areas of the business when we need to. That is what gives us the capacity to grow.

"We value the experience of staff and it is one of the ways that we can differentiate ourselves."

The company admitted that the rate of its life and pensions decline had been worse in the UK, where there was a 27 per cent decline to 2.5bn. It is the clearest indication yet that people are cutting back on the amount they spend on investments like pensions in the wake of the economic downturn.

But the company insists that it remains strong financially. It has a surplus of 3.2bn – meaning it has a strong 'cushion' of cash to protect it from a further downturn.

It currently has 9.2bn of mortgages under its management and the rate of arrears – people who have fallen three months or more behind on mortgage payments – has increased to 0.55 per cent, compared to 0.4 per cent three months ago. But that remains only around a quarter of the national average.

Chief Executive Sir Sandy Crombie said: "Standard Life has delivered a solid underlying performance in the first quarter despite the impact of financial markets, which are significantly lower than a year ago.

"Our sales have been affected by a number of one-off factors including our decision not to renew bulk investment bond deals and the revaluation of the Pension Sterling Fund.

"Our prompt actions, including contributing capital to the fund, coupled with the strength of our distribution relationships, have seen our new business flows recover quickly."

"Although we see the challenging market conditions continuing, our strengths remain un-changed."