Standard Life in pension link-up with Barclays after selling bank for £226m
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Barclays is buying Standard Life Bank in a £226m deal and the firms are looking to jointly develop a simplified pension product.
Barclays will acquire a savings book of around £5.5bn and a mortgage book with outstanding balances of about £8.8bn, as at June 30. A total of 270 staff are to transfer to Barclays.
The two firms have also made a strategic agreement to explore “joint opportunities” in the retail long-term savings and investments sector, starting by developing a multi-channel, simplified pension product.
Standard Life group chief executive Sir Sandy Crombie says: “We no longer believe that increasing the lending activity of the bank is consistent with our long-term financial objectives.”
The deal is subject to FSA approval but is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2010.
Syndaxi Chartered Financial Planners managing director Robert Reid says: “Selling the bank does seem contrary to Standard Life’s goal to be seen as a wealth manager. If a simplified pension product is going to be sold through all channels, I would suggest it will contain sufficient profit for the bank and it might be simple but is unlikely to be good value.”
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