Life and pensions mutual Royal London to name Parry‎ as chair

Royal London, one of Britain's biggest financial services mutuals, will this week name a board member of the asset management giant Standard Life Aberdeen as its next chairman.

Sky News has learnt that Kevin Parry will be unveiled on Tuesday as the successor to Rupert Pennant-Rea, the former Bank of England deputy governor who has chaired Royal London since 2013.

Mr Parry's appointment will trigger his departure from the board of Standard Life Aberdeen after just over four years, according to insiders.

He has been the company's senior independent director since the merger last year of Standard Life (LSE: SL.L - news) and Aberdeen Asset Management (Frankfurt: 899502 - news) , and had been seen as a candidate to replace Sir Gerry Grimstone as its chairman.

That role went, however, to Sir Douglas Flint, the former chairman of HSBC Holdings (Frankfurt: 923893 - news) .

As a non-executive director of Nationwide, the UK's biggest building society, Mr Parry is already well-acquainted with financial services mutuals.

Royal London, which traces its history to 1861, was established as a friendly society, converting to a mutual in 1908.

It is now a substantial player in each of the sectors in which it operates, with £114bn of funds under management and 8.8 million policies in force at the end of last year.

Employing more than 3,600 people, ‎Royal London announced in August a small rise in half-year operating profits to £187m.

The appointment of Mr Parry will come as one of the mutual's most prominent employees, the former pensions minister Steve Webb, holds talks about becoming the new chief executive of The Pensions Regulator.

A Royal London spokeswoman declined to comment on Monday.