Abbey National is set to catapult into the mortgage protection market should its proposed purchase of the protection specialist, Scottish Provident, go ahead, writes Rachel Williams.
The move could see Scottish Provident’s IFA-only mortgage protection policy, Self-Assurance Mortgage, distributed on a direct basis via Abbey National’s branches.
But Abbey National’s media relations executive Daniel Schraibman said that this is not likely to lead to a shift in focus for Scot Provident.
“The IFA market will continue to be its bread and butter market – although Abbey is looking at distributing the product through its retail network,” he said.
However, Susan Sneddon, group marketing manager at Scottish Provident, said that the product would not be suitable for the direct market in its current guise. “The Self Assurance range was developed for the IFA channel as there are so many different combinations in the plan. If it was sold through the branch network it would not be a straight copy.”
The purchase of Scottish Provident will assist Abbey National in its bid to diversify away from mortgages and savings.
