Scottish Widows has reported “continued momentum” in its protection offering amid a 20% drop in profits for its parent Lloyds Banking Group in the first half of the year.
The provider noted increased uptake in its protection insurance offering, using retail channels with take-up rates as a percentage of mortgage completions increasing from 9.1% to 12.1% in the period.
It also reported £700m growth in UK mortgages over the period.
Health & Protection understands the continued momentum in protection followed Lloyds making efforts to put a lot of focus on supporting its mortgage and protection advisers who offer Scottish Widows protection policies through its retail banking brands Lloyds Bank, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland over the period, while also developing tools and providing coaching to help advisers have deeper and more meaningful conversations with customers to explore and meet their mortgage protection needs.
Overall, Lloyds’ H1 2024 results revealed statutory profit after tax of £2.44bn, 15% down on the the same period in 2023.
The group attributed this to lower net interest income and higher operating expenses, partly offset by a lower impairment charge.
The group posed total net income of £8.37bn, down 7% on the same period in 2023, primarily reflecting lower net interest income.
Net interest income of £6,222m was down 11% compared to the first half of 2023, driven by lower margins.
Lloyds added that while the lower margin reflected anticipated headwinds due to deposit churn and asset margin compression, particularly in the mortgage book as it refinances in a lower margin environment, these factors were partially offset by benefits from higher structural hedge earnings as it refinances in the higher rate environment.