Ascentric costs Royal London £44m in replatforming bills

The company said: "Profit from Royal London's uncovered business has moved from a profit into a loss of £44m due to significant cost being incurred in 2016 relating to the development of new back-office software in Ascentric. We have recognised an impairment of £44m in the year." The provider became the majority shareholder of Ascentric in 2007, before finally buying out Ascentric's minority shareholding in 2015. While Ascentric saw assets under administration increase by 22% to £12.3bn in the period under review, the platform's gross sales fell 8% year-on-year to £2.3bn. Other num...