Royal London shrugs off economic woes

NEW business for Royal London, the UK's largest mutual life and pensions firm, was up 10 per cent in 2009, despite "the poor economic backdrop in 2009".

It said yesterday that life and pensions business rose to 2.5 billion, including the acquisition of Scottish Provident in 2008 from Resolution.

New business at its Edinburgh-based pension division Scottish Life was up 4 per cent to 1.6bn. But new business was 8 per cent down at protection provider Bright Grey, also in Edinburgh, to 167 million.

Assets for the group's new wrap platform, Ascentric, grew 111 per cent to 421m.

Royal London group chief executive Mike Yardley said: "These are excellent results overall, in what has been a very difficult year for the industry. Our expectation is that the majority of companies will be reporting a marked decline in new business levels."

The firm employs 1,300 people in Scotland.