Legal & General goes Nationwide

Nationwide Building Society and Legal & General have started their strategic distribution agreement.
Nationwide Building Society from today will sell Legal & General protection, investment and pension products to its members via its 3,300 strong team of financial consultants.

Legal & General, as part of the strategic agreement with Nationwide Building Society, has completed the acquisition of Nationwide Life Ltd and Nationwide Unit Trust Managers Ltd (NUTM) for £293 million. The acquisitions are financed out of the proceeds of Legal & General's £600m innovative Tier One capital issued in May last year.

Tim Breedon, Group Chief Executive at Legal & General said: “The strategic distribution agreement with Nationwide has the potential to become one of our largest. I look forward to working with Nationwide for the benefit of their members, and for the significant opportunities this brings to Legal & General.

“This strategic alliance enhances our position as the partner of choice for Britain’s banks and building societies. Legal & General will continue to develop and expand distribution in 2008, through banks and building societies, IFAs, platforms and direct to market. Each channel is strategically important to us and we see opportunities in each to grow market share.”

Graham Beale, Chief Executive of Nationwide said: “Our strategic agreement with Legal & General enables Nationwide to focus on what it does best – distributing financial services products which are simple, accessible and straightforward for our 13 million members.

“In line with our policy of offering the best products from the leading providers in the market, the Society is now able to offer members a broader range of products to meet their protection and investment needs. For the first time an Ethical Trust will be available – an exciting new addition to a range of investment trusts, as well as innovative new policies like the Family Life Insurance Plan to protect families.

“We look forward to working closely with Legal & General to ensure we continue to deliver products that meet the needs of our members.”

Nationwide Building Society will offer unit trusts and ISAs investing in a range of Legal & General funds including the Ethical Trust, as well as offer other products such as Family Life Insurance Plan, Capital Guaranteed Multi-Index Equity Bond, Critical Illness Cover and Life Cover. These products are available through Nationwide branches, the phone and the internet.

Nationwide Life and NUTM have 478,000 life customers and 414,000 investment customers. NUTM has funds under management of £2.95 billion as at 31 December 2007.