LONDON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - British insurer Legal & General said on Wednesday it was entering the European pensionrisk transfer market with a 200 million euro ($218.58 million)deal for Dutch insurer ASR Nederland.
Legal & General Re, in cooperation with Hannover Re is taking on the risk of a portion of ASR's definedbenefit, or final salary, pension scheme in a so-called bulkannuity transaction.
British insurers have turned to the bulk annuity market aspension reform has dented appetite for individual annuities,which give a fixed income for life.
"The potential market for pension risk transfer in the U.S.,UK, and Europe is huge, and will play out over many decades,"Kerrigan Procter, managing director at Legal & GeneralRetirement, said in a statement.
L&G wrote its first U.S. bulk annuity deal in October, withthe U.S. subsidiary of Royal Philips.
($1 = 0.9150 euros) (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Simon Jessop)