Royal London Ireland is to begin offering pension products here in a move that will increase competition in the market.
It will be the first new pension provider here in over a decade and the first life assurance firm to enter the pensions sector in Ireland in three decades.
Its pensions products will be offered exclusively through brokers.
"Following several years of behind-the-scenes work, intense consultation with financial brokers and a multi-million capital investment, we have been able to create a compelling pension proposition that will deliver value for money and competitive pricing for customers, combined with access to two leading asset managers Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) and BlackRock," said Noel Freeley, CEO of Royal London Ireland.
"Underpinned by strong customer service, our pension products will provide positive competition in terms of innovation, pricing and transparency, with no fixed or monetary policy fees or fund switching charges."
New entrants into the pension market are rare because of the level of upfront investment that is needed.
The company will initially offer a Personal Retirement Bond and an Approved Retirement Fund.
It will be the first pension provider with zero policy fees and fund switching charges.
Automatic portfolio rebalancing will also be included as will an additional payment boost that may be added to customers fund returns in years that the company does well, called ValueShare.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions provider in the UK with over 21,000 workplace pension schemes that have 1.6 million members.
Its assets management arm manages €174 billion.
"This expansion represents the next stage of development in our ongoing growth in Ireland," said Mr Freeley.
"We're in a position where we're market leader in broker protection products and where we have increased our broker protection estimated market share from 22.5% to 30.2% since 2020, so we have a strong distribution platform to build from.
"Service from providers has been a big challenge across the Irish pension sector over the last 12-18 months. Royal London Ireland is well positioned to address this service deficit utilising our breath of experience in the life insurance sector in providing award-winning service."
