S&P Affirms Barclays, Legal and General Ratings Following Alliance

Standard & Poor’s international rating service quickly reaffirmed Barclays Bank’s “AA/Stable/A-I+” rating and life and pension insurer L&G’s ratings, “in the triple-‘A’ range”, following their announcement yesterday that Barclays would begin offering L&G products in all its branches, and was phasing out its own life and pension activities.

“This development, which takes advantage of the prospective relaxation of polarization rules for U.K. financial services, is expected to boost L& G’s U.K. sales by about 25% on an annualized basis, thereby further consolidating what is already an excellent position in the domestic life and pensions market,” the S&P announcement stated.

It also saw the move as further strengthening Barclays’ position “in key segments of the U.K. retail financial services sector where it has been underweight (mortgages and long-term savings).” It approved Barclays’ earlier acquisition of Woolwich PLC, a mortgage lender, and indicated that the alliance with L&G “will improve Barclays’ position in the long-term savings market by giving it access to a higher-quality brand, a wider product range, and more insurance industry expertise.”|”snp, affirms, barclays,, legal, general, ratings, following, alliance