Norwich Union claims it has regained its position as the number one provider of equity release products, following a series of product innovations and promotions during 2008.
The firm argued it secured the top spot after confirming revenue figures from reported sales of £249m, compared to £242m for Prudential, the former frontrunner in the equity release market.
Norwich Union highlighted a series of successes in 2008, including launching the proposition in Northern Ireland in January and increasing the LTV scale for its lifetime mortgages in April. In May the minimum cash payment for home reversion plans decreased from £25,000 to £15,000 while the home reversion cash-to-release scale jumped from 56% to 59%.
This was followed by a product enhancement launch in August which involved introducing a new suite of lifetime mortgages titled ‘Lifestyle’.
Norwich Union equity release has seen its market share increase between Q1 and Q4 in 2008 from 6.5% to 27% when dealing with advisers and 36% to 47% when dealing direct.
Commenting on their equity release schemes…“We have already seen a strong start to 2009, and we look forward to building on this achievement to benefit both our customers and advisers even further in the future.”
