Lloyds Banking Group has revealed that its life and pensions sales increased by 45 per cent to £14.4bn during 2018, as its retirement business sector continued to grow.

According to its 2018 results, the rise in sales was “driven by increases in new members in existing workplace schemes, increased auto-enrolment workplace contributions and bulk annuities”.

Furthermore, the bank saw an 85 per cent rise in its life and pensions business income in 2018, up to £526m.

Lloyds also announced that they secured 630,000 new pension customers during this period, with the aim of having one million new customers by the end of 2020.

The increases in its retirement business comes following its purchase of Zurich UK's pensions and savings business in October 2017.

It's report also disclosed restructuring costs of £879m, including £267m in Q4 2018, which was partly due to to “severance costs relating to the group's strategic investment plans as well as the expected costs of the integration of MBNA and Zurich's UK workplace pensions and savings business, ring-fencing and the rationalisation of the non-branch property portfolio”.

In it's report, Lloyds added: “Restructuring costs are expected to reduce significantly in 2019 with ring-fencing and the integration of MBNA now substantially complete.

“The group continues to invest significantly in the development of the business, with the aims of capturing considerable opportunities in pensions and financial planning, offering customers a single home for their banking and insurance needs, and driving growth across intermediary and relationship channels through a strong distribution model.”

In Ocober 2018, Lloyds lost a landmark court case after it was ruled that it must now equalise pensions benefits for men and women, in a ruling that is having huge consequences for thousands of companies.

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