The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society has announced its intention to combine its international businesses, Scottish Provident International Life Assurance and Scottish Life International, to create a business with the scale to compete in the international marketplace.

The group said that its acquisition of Scottish Provident International Life Assurance (SPILA) has added significant scale to its international business.

David Kneeshaw, currently CEO of Scottish Life International (SLI), will lead a steering group which has been tasked with designing the best model to deliver the future success of Royal London’s international business. On approval of the steering group’s proposals, Mr Kneeshaw will assume the role of CEO of Royal London’s international business and will have responsibility for the implementation of the plans.

John Deane, CEO of intermediary division at Royal London, said: The steering group will be composed of people from both the SPILA and the SLI management teams. The underlying principles of the steering group’s work will be to design a business which has the capability to grow market share profitably in offshore markets.