SCOTTISH LIFE WINS 2009 FINANCIAL SERVICES INNOVATORS AWARDS
October 30, 2009
Pension specialist Scottish Life is the winner of the 2009 Innovators Awards for the best new innovation from Scotland's financial services industry.
The company won for ‘Income Release' - an innovation that set a new standard in giving more customers access to their pension before they retire.
The Innovators Awards are a Scottish Financial Enterprise initiative, in association with Ernst & Young, and were announced to an industry-wide audience in Edinburgh last night.
Scottish Life, a specialist pensions company and a division of Royal London, won their category - innovation in customer focus - and also came top as the overall winner.
Other category winners were:
- Innovation in education and skills - Scottish Investment Operations, for their new diploma in investment accounting, a qualification for investment (or fund) accountants. It will be delivered by the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland.
- Innovation in new products - SIX Telekurs for FundsFast, a service providing users with a tool to build same-day valuations of ‘fund of funds'. Firms providing outsourced administration services can gain a competitive advantage over companies using traditional, overnight services to receive funds data.
- Innovation in investment in the community - RBS for MoneySense - the largest free and impartial financial education programme of its kind in the UK. RBS have also extended the service to include MoneySense for business.
- Innovation in business improvement - Origo Services, for Options Pension Transfer Service, a web-based service that simplifies and improves the way pension funds can be transferred between providers.
Owen Kelly, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, said:
"We had an impressive range of innovations this year, but Scottish Life came through because the company reacted to a change in legislation that allowed them to create a new pensions option for a much wider range of people.
"It opened up a route that had, until now, been restricted to a very limited group. At a time of increased focus on the importance of pension provision, this innovation really is focused on customers."
Tom McGrath, managing partner of Ernst & Young's financial services business in Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA), added: " Over the last 18 months the economic and regulatory landscapes have evolved dramatically and, as the UK pulls back from the brink of recession, there can be little doubt that we are entering a new and changing world.
"To thrive in this environment, more than ever before, business leaders in the financial services industry will need to demonstrate ingenuity, flexibility and the courage to make tough decisions."
Note to Editors
More about Scottish Life's ‘Income Release'.
This pension product has set a new standard in providing customers with access to their pension prior to retirement. Designed to client need, and based on extensive research, it has proved highly successful, increasing its sales by 250% in two years. Since the product was launched, Scottish Life's share of the target market rose from 3.5% at the end of 2007 to 21.6% in spring 2009. A 2009 survey of independent financial advisers showed that Scottish Life came first for new business servicing and in the top three for overall quality of service.
