Royal London on Thursday reported a 1% increase in half year EEV operating profit to £187 million and a 9% increase in half year EEV pre-tax profit to £358 million.

EEV means European Embedded Value basis — which discounts future cashflows and is a main gauge of performance.

Life and pensions sales held steady at just more than £6 billion and funds under management edged higher to £117 billion.

Royal London, the UK’s largest mutual life, pensions and investment company, employs more than 1,000 in Scotland and includes the former Scottish Life and Scottish Provident businesses.

Royal London CEO Phil Loney said: “Sluggish economic growth and the ending of the auto enrolment roll out provided a challenging backdrop for pensions and investment companies in the first half of 2018.

“I’m pleased to report that Royal London has consolidated its record 2017 trading position with EEV pre-tax profit up 9% to £358 million, reflecting an operating profit of £187 million in the first six months of the year.”

Loney also urged the UK Government to save the proposed “pensions dashboard” project.

Loney said: “The UK pensions system is highly fragmented and auto enrolment will add further to the number of people with pensions scattered across multiple schemes and providers.

“In many other countries citizens can see all of their pensions – state, workplace and private – all in one place, and there is no reason why UK citizens should not be able to do so.

“The industry has already shown its commitment by spending time and money preparing a prototype dashboard.

“We need Government to take a lead, both in ensuring that state and public sector pension data is available and also in requiring all pension schemes and providers to supply data.

“Only the Government can do this.

“It is time to put the consumer first and press ahead with the dashboard project, and we stand ready to work with the Government to drive this project forward.”