Lloyds Banking : SCOTTISH WIDOWS COMPLETES BULK ANNUITY WITH HITACHI

17th October 2018

SCOTTISH WIDOWS COMPLETES BULK ANNUITY

WITH HITACHI

Scottish Widows has today announced the completion of a bulk annuity with Hitachi UK Limited Pension Scheme. The sponsoring employer is leading technology and infrastructure business, Hitachi Europe Ltd.

Ross Trustees were advised by Aon for this insurance de-risking arrangement in which the Trustee, Hitachi Europe Ltd and Scottish Widows worked closely to deliver.

Emma Watkins, Director of Bulk Annuities at Scottish Widows, said: "We have been building a strong capability in this growing market and the purchase of the buy-in policy is a key step for Hitachi to help reduce the risks associated with its pension scheme. We are looking forward to working with Ross Trustees to implement this contract.

"We continue to see high demand from schemes looking to remove risk through bulk annuities, with an exciting pipeline of buy-ins and buy-outs for the rest of 2018 and beyond."

Jo Myerson, Ross Trustees, said: "We are delighted to have completed this transaction with Scottish Widows following a highly competitive auction run by Aon, which delivered significant cost-effective risk reduction for the scheme."

Michael Walker, Principal Consultant at Aon, said: "We worked closely with a joint working group of Ross Trustees and Hitachi to secure their first pensioner buy-in transaction, capitalising on the attractive de-risking opportunities currently available in the bulk annuity market, and Scottish Widows delivered an excellent future-proofed outcome for the scheme."

ENDS

For further information please contact Scottish Widows media team:

Lorna Gilmour 07717 426 [e-mail]

Note to editors:

About Scottish Widows

•  Scottish Widows has completed 17 bulk annuity arrangements to date securing the benefits of over 25,000 pension scheme members to the end of H1 2018.

•  Scottish Widows was founded in 1815 as Scotland's first mutual life office and is one of the most recognised brands in the life, pensions and investment industry in the UK.

About Ross Trustees

•  Ross Trustees is an integrated professional services firm which provides professional Trustee and governance services to both defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes throughout the country.

About Aon

•  Aon plc (NYSE:AON) is a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Our 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries empower results for clients by using proprietary data and analytics to deliver insights that reduce volatility and improve performance.