TORONTO, Jan. 14 – Sun Life Financial Services of Canada
Inc. (NYSE, TSE: “SLC”) today announced an agreement with the Marlborough
Stirling group to outsource the administration of Sun Life Financial’s closed book of U.K.
individual life and pension business consisting of over 800,000 policies. Sun Life
Financial’s fast-growing group insurance business, which ranks No. 3 in the U.K., will be
unaffected by this agreement.
“In early 2001, Sun Life Financial placed all of its
U.K. operations under strategic review. This review led to a series of actions last year,
including the exiting of the direct sales force business and the sales of Sun Bank and SLC
Asset Management,” said Donald A. Stewart, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
Sun Life Financial. “This agreement to outsource our U.K. back office operations in
the individual business will save approximately $50 million in operating expenses over the
next five years. In addition, it will reduce operating risk and enhance our strategic
flexibility in the U.K.”
Sun Life Financial has been a client of Marlborough
Stirling since 1999 when it decided to implement Lamda, Marlborough Stirling’s life and
pensions administration system. Under the terms of the new agreement, Marlborough Stirling
will have overall responsibility to complete the planned implementation of the Lamda
system, which will be used as the platform on which the portfolio will be managed.
“The outsourcing agreement will take effect in March
2002 and savings will grow over time reflecting full migration onto the lower-cost Lamda
platform and the anticipated run off of the closed book portfolio,” added Mr. Stewart.
Approximately 720 Sun Life Financial employees based in
Basingstoke, U.K. will be joining Marlborough Stirling, where they will provide services
to policyholders. Sun Life Financial will maintain a small U.K. governance team who will
be responsible for ensuring fiduciary, policyholder and regulatory obligations are met. In
addition, Sun Life Financial will maintain approximately 100 employees in its continuing
U.K. group insurance business.
“Marlborough Stirling quickly established itself as
our preferred partner in helping us reposition our U.K. individual life and pensions
operations following our decision to cease distribution of new individual life and pension
products via a direct sales force,” said Peter Hanby, Chief Executive Officer of Sun
Life Assurance Company of Canada (U.K.) Limited. “This partnership represents a
natural extension of the business benefits we were looking to achieve by implementing the
Lamda system. It also enables us to reduce restructuring and per policy costs on the run
off closed book portfolio and brings significant benefits to employees who will be moving
into a vibrant, expanding business.”
About Sun Life Financial
Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a
diverse range of wealth accumulation and protection products and services to individuals
and corporate customers. Tracing its roots back to 1871, Sun Life Financial and its
partners today have operations in key markets worldwide, including Canada, the United
States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, and
Bermuda. As of September 30, 2001 the Sun Life Financial group of companies has total
assets under management of CDN $299 billion.
Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. trades on the
Toronto (TSE), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under ticker symbol
“SLC”, and on the London Stock Exchange under ticker symbol “SFC”.
About Marlborough Stirling
Marlborough Stirling (
www.marlborough-stirling.com) provides software and services to the mortgages, life and pensions and
investment market sectors. Its software and services enable financial service providers and intermediaries
to meet consumers’ demand for financial products that are flexible, capable of being
distributed through a variety of channels and processed efficiently.
Marlborough Stirling employs approximately 1,300 people and
is based in the U.K. It has operations in a number of other locations including Canada
where, through offices in Toronto and Vancouver, it provides its software and services to
the Canadian financial services industry.
The group listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 2001
(under ticker symbol MAS.L) and gained entry to the FTSE250 index two months later.
