Royal London Ireland has forayed into Irish pensions market by making a multi-million euro investment.

This is said to be the first instance of a life assurance company entering the country’s crowded pensions market in three decades.

A subsidiary of the UK’s Royal London Mutual Insurance Society, the company plans to launch a range of pension products exclusively through brokers.

In the initial stages, the company plans to offer a Personal Retirement Bond and an Approved Retirement Fund.

The company claimed that it is the first to operate without any fixed policy fee or charges for fund switching.

Royal London Ireland chief executive Noel Freeley said: “This expansion represents the next stage of development in our ongoing growth in Ireland.

“We’re in a position where we’re market leader in broker protection products and where we have increased our broker protection estimated market share from 22.5% to 30.2% since 2020*, so we have a strong distribution platform to build from.”

The entry of Royal London Ireland into the pensions market is set to increase competition in the field.

Freeley added: “The competition in Ireland’s pensions market has been largely unchanged for some time. New entrants are rare, primarily due to the level of investment required to deliver a high value product and the expertise demanded to build a robust service support platform.”

Being the largest mutual life and pensions provider in the UK, Royal London has over 21,000 workplace pension schemes with over 1.6 million members. The Royal London launched its subsidiary in Ireland in 2019 as part of its Brexit contingency plan.