Royal London, the mutual life and pensions company, has announced operating profits for last year of £346m.

This included a £150m one-off gain from the takeover of the life, pensions and asset management businesses of The Co-operative Group - referred to as the CIS acquisition.
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Group funds under management were £73.6bn – a 48% increase on the previous year. The group includes Royal London Plus, Royal London Asset Management, Money Vista, Scottish Life and Ascentric.
Phil Loney, group chief executive of Royal London, said its businesses had to contend with great change in 2013, with new regulations at the same time as tough market conditions.
He said: "We did so, for the most part, very successfully by producing one of the strongest profit performances in the recent history of the group.
"Just as importantly, the changes we have made to our business have improved our ability to deliver the best experiences and outcomes for our members, customers and intermediary partners."
New business profits increased in the year, though there was a slight decline in existing business profits, he said. Mr Loney attributed this to an increase in strategic investment in the business to support a number of key goals – including its auto enrolment programme, the move to operate under a new Royal London brand and the launch of its direct business later in 2014.
Meanwhile, he welcomed the radical pensions reforms in the Budget – particularly the removal of the requirement to convert pension savings into an annuity.
He said: "The increase in the trivial commutation limits is something we have long favoured but the imminent removal of all limits has fundamentally changed the way we think about pensions.
"Greater flexibility is certain to improve the attraction of pensions as a savings vehicle at just the time when more people than ever are joining corporate pensions as a result of automatic enrolment.
"We have a strong track record for innovation in the market for income drawdown and we expect many more savers to choose this option once annuities are no longer compulsory."
The Government's new pension policy will increase the need for good advice in the run up to retirement. We look forward to working with Government and our Regulators to develop imaginative and effective ways of providing such guidance."