Abbey wants to increase its share of pension investors
The Abbey has launched a plan to double its share of the investment and pensions market over the next 18 months. The Abbey has agreed to sell its life insurance business to Resolution in June for more then £3.5 billion. Resolution is a leading consolidator of closed life funds. Abbey would like to increase its annual premium income for investments and pensions business to more than £2 billion.
In 2005 Abbey's investment and pensions API rose by 40 per cent to almost £1 billion. It also has plans to increase its number of in branch financial advisors from 350 to 750 and it has begun by already recruiting around 90 staff. Five hundred will be trained to give the general public advice. It currently has 18 million customers but only a small proportion is active buyers of pension and investment products. | 
