Royal London completed eight bulk purchase annuity (BPA) buy-ins in the first half of the year, securing £658m of premiums, with total premiums since launch now surpassing the £1bn milestone, its interim results have revealed.

The group said that its BPA business has been building momentum since its launch in September 2024, with the proposition well received by trustees and their advisers.

In addition to this, the interim results confirmed that the group's pipeline for the second half of the year is "strong", with three further transactions with total premiums of £142m written to date in the second half of 2025.

Growth was also seen more broadly for the group, as the report confirmed that overall pensions new business sales increased slightly to £4.5bn (H1 2024: £4.4bn).

In particular, individual pension sales increased by 3 per cent to £2.4bn, primarily driven by growth in the group's non-advised income release product.

Workplace pensions new business sales, meanwhile, remained "flat" at £2.1bn, after an 8 per cent increase in transfers was broadly offset by fewer new scheme wins compared to the same period in 2024.

However, the group's workplace assets under management (AUM) grew 6 per cent in the first half of 2025 to £33.1bn, driven primarily by net inflows of £1.5bn.

The group also confirmed that its flagship investment solution, the Governed Range, attracted net inflows of £1.6bn, up from £1.5bn in H1 2024, which, together with market growth, drove an increase in AUM to £75bn.

Further changes could be on the horizon, as the group is also looking to expand its Private Assets capabilities, including the launch of two asset-backed securities funds and, subject to regulatory approvals, the acquisition of infrastructure asset manager Dalmore Capital, to support its BPA proposition and provide Governed Range customers with access to new asset classes.

"Our Private Assets capability directly supports our new BPA business, and we plan to integrate many of these new capabilities into the Governed Range, giving customers access to exciting new asset classes within a diversified portfolio that we expect to generate superior long-term risk-adjusted returns," it stated.

In addition to this, Royal London confirmed that, whilst it is already allocating a "substantial" investment to UK real estate, it expects to increase its allocation to other private asset classes over time.

"We remain committed to making the right long-term decisions for customers and do not believe that the government should mandate the proportion of pensions investments that should be invested in the UK," it stated.

"As Royal London has consistently shown, the right expertise in asset management already results in allocations to UK productive assets in our Governed Range being higher than the 5 per cent envisaged under the accord."

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