| Type | Friendly society |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1843 |
| Headquarters | Bournemouth, United Kingdom |
| Products | Insurance, OEICs |
| Website | lv.com |
LV (Liverpool Victoria and styled as LV=) is the UK's largest friendly society [1] with approximately 1.1 million members.[2]
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Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society Limited was founded in 1843 as a burial society, and for many decades Liverpool Victoria was most commonly associated with "penny policies" collected door to door by a cross country team of agents to provide a method of saving to people of modest means. Today LV= expresses its mission as enabling people to "look after what they love" by the provision of insurance, investment and retirement solutions.[3]
It is incorporated under the provisions of the Friendly Societies Act 1992 and has its registered address, and head office, at County Gates, Westbourne, Bournemouth BH1 2NF. It is regulated by the Financial Services Authority.[4]
As a mutual company LV has no shareholders and is owned by its members.
Since May 2007 the society has traded under the "LV=" brand.
Today LV= is a diversified financial services group.
General insurance products covering motor, home, pet, travel and small business insurance are provided by Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company Limited. Products are sold both directly to the public over the telephone and internet and, under the ABC Insurance brand, through insurance brokers. This latter distribution channel was boosted in October 2008 by the £150 million acquisition of Highway Insurance Group PLC, following a successful public offering for its shares.[5][6] Since 2007 the general insurance division has also owned Britannia Rescue, the UK's fourth largest road rescue business,[7] which in 2009 won a contract to be the exclusive provider of road rescue services to the customers of Asda.[8] General insurance products are also sold through white label partnership arrangements including Nationwide Building Society,[9][10] and CSMA Club, the latter arrangement dating back to 1923.[11]
Life assurance products covering with-profits assurance, term assurance, whole life insurance and pensions are provided by Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society Limited and Liverpool Victoria Life Company Limited. Since January 2008 the product range has been augmented by flexible retirement solutions and equity release schemes through the acquisition from Swiss Re of the former G E Life businesses in the United Kingdom.[12]
In 1999 Liverpool Victoria was heavily criticised in a report by the Personal Investment Authority for "serious and widespread compliance failings" including hiring inept staff who offered customers poor financial advice.[13] The Society was fined £900,000, the largest fine ever handed out by the PIA at the time.
In August 2011 it was announced that the fund management services and OEICS provided by Liverpool Victoria Asset Management Limited and Liverpool Victoria Portfolio Managers Limited would be transferred to Threadneedle Asset Management as LV= had failed to achieve sufficient scale, despite having some £8 billion of funds under management.[14]
Liverpool Victoria Banking Services Limited provided loans and credit cards until 2007 when this business was closed following heavy losses.[15] In 2008 the company was fined £840,000 by the FSA in connection with its past sale of payment protection insurance alongside loans.[16]
While the head office is in Westbourne, LV has significant branch offices in Croydon, Brentwood, The City of London, Hitchin, Bristol, Leeds, Huddersfield and Exeter.
Following the appointment of Mike Rogers as the new Chief Executive in 2006, LV= has undergone significant change in an effort to modernise its image and to re-invent itself[17] in the face of the gradual industry-wide decline in with-profits assurance.[18][19]
In early 2007 the name Liverpool Victoria was dropped (although it remains the formal name of most legal entities within the group) in favour of LV=.[20] A distinctive green heart icon has also become a symbol of the group in its advertising, playing on the visual similarity of LV= to the word LOVE. Shortly after the rebranding LV= acquired the internet domain name LV.com, which the French luxury goods manufacturer Louis Vuitton had in November 2006 failed to acquire through a WIPO law suit.[21]
In recent years the society has promoted itself through sponsorship of sport. As Liverpool Victoria, it sponsored the UK Snooker Championship from 1997-2000.[22] It has sponsored the cricket County Championship since 2002, initially (2002–2005) as Frizzell[23] (the name of an old established insurance business acquired in 1996),[24] in 2006 as Liverpool Victoria and since 2007 as LV=.[25] In rugby union, LV= signed a three year sponsorship deal with Premiership club Harlequins in October 2008,[26] and in October 2009 signed a two-year deal to become title sponsor of the Anglo-Welsh Cup.[27]
In 2007, for the first time in the society's history, television advertising was employed for car insurance and life assurance, the former featuring the song Have Love, Will Travel,[28] and the latter featuring Cilla Black.[29]