Royal London profits double
Pensions and life insurance giant Royal London yesterday announced an impressive 105 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to £226m for the first six months of 2013. The mutual, which recently bought the Co-op’s life insurance arm for £219m, said it had benefited from the introduction of new rules that ban the payment of commission to financial advisers. “Our focus on the quality of proposition and service for customers and their advisers sits behind the strong growth,” said chief executive Phil Loney. The Co-op deal will increase total assets under management by £20bn to around £70bn and result in Royal London managing 10m individual policies.