Royal London reports record life and pensions growth

Broken down, the group saw a 24% rise in its intermediary protection business to £287m. Group pensions were up by 66% to £1,921m while individual pensions and drawdown saw an increase of 17% to £1,783m.

Overall in H1, its group EEV operating profit rose by 20% to £138m, boosted by total new business profit growth of £22m.

Royal London saw particularly strong growth of 93% to £160m for its range of direct-to-consumer protection products.

The firm said that its consumer division remains a relatively new market entrant, but that its Over 50s plan in particular has "taken market share from established market participants".

Phil Loney, Group Chief Executive of Royal London, said: “Today we are announcing a strong set of results delivered against the uncertain backdrop of the UK referendum on EU membership and continuing low interest rates.

“For example, we have made a substantial investment in our protection proposition for customers introduced by intermediaries, making improvements to the customer journey with enhancements to the online application and underwriting processes and keener pricing. These improvements have resulted in wider adviser and customer engagement and an improvement in first half new business.

“We have indicated that we expect a slowing of the rate of growth in workplace pensions for some time and this indeed is beginning to come through in the new business figures. As smaller employers are now starting to auto-enrol the revenue from these schemes is lower than in earlier phases which were dominated by larger schemes. Nonetheless the number of schemes continues to grow and new business growth in Group Pensions was ahead by 66% on the same half-year period in 2015.  

"As the auto-enrolled market matures we are beginning to see a new trend; the growth of a secondary market as advisers recommend schemes move to take advantage of better quality scheme administration or investment options. Royal London has benefited from this trend, taking on schemes that have already auto-enrolled with other providers. This “flight to quality” introduces competition to the market and will result in better outcomes for scheme members."