Royal London passes £100bn of funds under management

Royal London, Britain's largest mutually-owned life and pensions provider, today reported solid financial results and revealed that for the first time it has more than £100 billion of funds under management.

Phil Loney, chief executive, Royal London. Picture: contributed

Phil Loney, chief executive of the group, which employs more than 1,200 in Edinburgh, attributed the milestone to new business inflows in its asset management and pensions business and rising asset values.

It came as Royal London, which Loney has pledged previously to build into “the Waitrose of our sector”, revealed that new life and pensions business jumped 30 per cent to £6.29bn in the nine months to September.

That compared with a figure of £4.86bn in the same period of 2015. Group pensions were up 50 per cent to £2.87bn from £1.92bn, while individual pensions and drawdown were up 11 per cent to £2.68bn.

Loney, an industry veteran who has headed Royal London for five years, commented: “Royal London is established as one of the leading providers in the protection, personal pension and drawdown markets.

“Increasingly individual pensions and drawdown should be regarded as a single sector because, following introduction of pension freedoms, the line between pension accumulation and the drawdown phase has blurred.”

Loney said Royal London had also gained a “strong share” of the automatic pensions enrolment market due to its “personal approach”.

The mutual continued “to build a strong presence in the workplace pensions market and have always maintained the importance of diversfication in investment approach including holding property as an asset class,” he said.

The Royal London chief added: “The third quarter saw record sales for our intermediary protection business and the response from the market for our products and service remains extremely positive.”

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