Scottish Widows insures $607 mln of Wiggins Teape pension

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Scottish Widows, the insurancearm of Lloyds Bank, has insured 400 million pounds($606.84 million) of former UK paper manufacturer WigginsTeape's pension scheme, the insurer said on Tuesday.

The deal, in which Scottish Widows takes on the risk oftwo-thirds of Wiggins Teape's defined benefit, or final salary,pension scheme, is the insurer's first external transaction inthe so-called "bulk annuity" market, it said in a statement.

Insurers such as Prudential, Legal & General and smaller specialist insurers have been focusing onthe bulk annuity market after British pensions reforms havedented the sales of individual annuities, which give retirees afixed income for life.

Bulk annuity deals totalled a record 13 billion pounds in2014. Scottish Widows competed against six other insurers forthe Wiggins Teape deal, Tom Seecharan, director at adviser KPMG,said in the statement.($1 = 0.6592 pounds) (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, editing by David Evans)