LLOYDS Banking Group has given its Scottish Widows pensions arm a £19 billion boost in assets by acquiring insurance giant Zurich’s UK workplace pensions and savings business.

The assets, which are spread across around 500,000 customers, adds to the £124bn of funds already managed by Scottish Widows, £35bn of which is in workplace pensions.

While Lloyds has faced questions in recent years about whether it would offload its pensions business, Scottish Widows chief executive Antonio Lorenzo said the deal is “a clear signal of Lloyds Banking Group’s commitment to the financial planning and retirement segment”.

“The acquisition of Zurich Corporate Savings complements Scottish Widows’ growth to date and provides us with an ideal opportunity to accelerate our goal to become a market leader in this important sector for advisers and customers,” he said.

“Zurich Corporate Savings is highly regarded and has achieved good growth in assets under administration driven through strong relationships with large-scale corporate clients and their intermediaries.

“The greater proposition choice created through this acquisition will help us meet adviser and customer demands and ensure we continue to evolve our service proposition so that we are easy to do business with.”

Scottish Widows saw its underlying profit figure fall by 13 per cent to £837m in the 2016 financial year, with a note to Lloyds’ accounts stating that pensions reforms that mean pensioners can cash in their savings at age 55 were to blame.