Liberata, the UK-based specialists in back office outsourcing life offices and pension plans, has entered into an “evergreen” contract to service life policies of customers of Barclays Life and its subsidiary, Woolwich Life. The contract, with an approximate value of 200m, is to manage 1.4m policies. As a result of the contract, 240 staff from Barclays will transfer to Liberata, where career opportunities will be enhanced through working as part of a growing service organisation. This deal takes to over 3 million policies the number of policies administered by Liberata, whose other clients include AXA, Century Life and Save & Prosper.
“The outsourcing of life and pensions administration is a further step in Barclays strategy to concentrate on distribution rather than manufacturing of regulated products,” explains Phil Hine, Chief Operating Officer, Barclays Investment Management. “Whilst the term of the contract is unprecedented, the contract ensures value for money throughout its lifetime through commitments to continuous improvement and benchmarking. It also secures our ability to deliver improvements to customer service in the future. Liberata’s leading risk management processes and extensive experience of administration in this regulatory environment, combined with its proven ability to migrate clients’ business to their systems, were key factors in our decision to choose Liberata. I am very pleased that Liberata is taking on all our administration staff and offering them attractive opportunities for their future careers.”
Liberata claims that Barclays ongoing risk will be diminished by exchanging largely fixed costs for predictable costs per policy. Further business benefits , says Liberata, include Euro cost-avoidance (hitherto an issue with three existing legacy systems), allowing Barclays to better align its costs with the reality of managing a closed portfolio. Furthermore, the portfolio will be future-proofed through its migration on to Liberata’s flexible and fully-scalable suite of systems and processes. “We are delighted to announce what we believe to be a unique contract with Barclays, and look forward to working together over the lifetime of the portfolio,” says Liz Catchpole, Managing Director of Liberata Life, Pensions & Investments.” Liberata’s administration capability will be considerably enhanced by the addition of Barclays highly-experienced employees to support this and future contracts.”
Liberata ‘s life and pensions division provides policy and customer services administration for group and individual business, investment fund administration and unit pricing, actuarial support and valuations, and regulatory support services.
The Liberata Group employs approximately 3,000 people in more than 20 business and business technology centres across the United Kingdom. Liberata’s five operating divisions are Life, Pensions & Investments; Central Government; Corporate Services; General Insurance Services and Local Government. Financial performance for the year to 31 May 2002 increased to 181m, generating earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of approximately 11m.
Glenn Timms, Chief Executive Officer of Liberata plc, concludes : “This contract represents a further milestone in the consolidation of Liberata as a pre-eminent provider of business process outsourcing services to the Life, Pensions & Investment sector. Our Life, Pensions & Investments team have built on our recent success with Axa Sun Life by securing this groundbreaking contract in a competitive tender against tough competition. In terms of policies we will administer, Liberata is now equivalent to a top 20 UK Life Company. We are confident that, going forward, our business model means we are well-placed to take advantage of the growth in this sector.”