Lloyds targets one million new pension clients by 2020
Plans to invest more than £3bn in strategic initiatives
Lloyds Banking Group wants to increase its financial planning and retirement open book of assets by more than £50bn by 2020 and add an additional one million new pension customers.
The group, which includes pensions provider Scottish Widows, outlined its plans in a three-year strategic plan released this morning.
It said it wanted to deepen customer relationships, grow in targeted segments and better address its customers' banking and insurance needs as an "integrated financial services provider".
Part of the strategy included "maximising the group's capabilities" in which the business said it wanted to boost its financial planning and retirement book of business by £50bn by 2020 and significantly increase pension-focused customer numbers.
It also said it wanted to implement an integrated financial planning and retirement proposition "with a single customer view".
Lloyds said it wants to transform into a "digitised, simple, low risk, customer focused, UK financial services provider".
It plans to invest more than £3bn in strategic initiatives, an increase of more than 40% on the previous strategy, to further enhance customer propositions, further digitise the group, maximise capabilities as an integrated financial service provider and transform the way it works.
Group chief executive António Horta-Osório said: "Over the last six years the group has made huge progress and has built many strong capabilities including the largest and top rated digital bank in the UK.
"As we enter the next phase of our journey our team is determined to further improve the business, enhance customer experience and deliver superior shareholder returns.
"The external environment is evolving rapidly and I am confident that this exciting and ambitious plan, with the significant additional investment, will mean we remain at the forefront of UK financial services, and continue to deliver our mission of Helping Britain Prosper."
Today's announcement about plans for the integrated group come after reports over the weekend said talks to merge Lloyds' Scottish Widows subsidiary with Standard Life Aberdeen's pensions and assurance business broke down late last year, following a dispute about the structure of the new business.
The breakdown of the talks led to Horta-Osório believing he had no choice but to cancel a £109bn investment contract with Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA), according to the reports.
In the year Lloyds returned to full private ownership, the group also reported its statutory profit before tax increased 24% to £5.3bn in 2017, while underlying profit rose by 8% to £8.5bn.
Additional PPI provisions of £1.7bn and conduct costs of £865m were taken last year, with Lloyds saying this figure reflects increased complaint levels, including the impact of the first FCA advertising campaign for the August 2019 industry deadline.
The board has recommended a final ordinary dividend of 2.05p per share, taking the total ordinary dividend for 2017 to 3.05p per share, up 20% on 2016.
As expected, Lloyds has also announced its intention to implement a share buyback of up to £1bn, equivalent to up to 1.4p per share.
The government sold its last shares in Lloyds in May, eight years after pumping in £20bn to save the bank.
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