UK – The Post Office is teaming up with mutual life assurance company Standard Life to provide stakeholder pensions through its 18,000 strong branch network.
The product will be available to the Post Offices estimated 28 million customers through the majority of its offices from April this year.

The size of the Post Office network means stakeholder plans will be available to a large number of people - an objective laid down by the UK government when it introduced the stakeholder initiative.

“ We will provide customers with information on the product and enable them to pay premiums in a number of ways, including cash through our branches – whether or not they have a bank account – another example of how the Post Office can support key social initiatives,” says Basil Larkins, managing director of network banking at the Post Office.

“ We chose Standard Life because of the quality and flexibility of its products and their strong performance record. We are keen to develop our banking and financial partnerships as a means of replacing the income we will lose as a result of the government’s decision to pay benefit payments directly into customers’ bank accounts,” he adds.