Profits increase at Standard Life

Standard Life said its financial position was strong

Life assurer Standard Life has posted a better-than-expected 6% rise in pre-tax operating profits to £933m ($1.3bn).

The company said the profit rise was partly down to it having achieved £100m in cost cuts ahead of schedule.

Standard Life said it now planned to save a further £75m over two years, saying that the outlook for world financial markets remained "difficult".

However, it said its financial position was among the strongest in the sector, with a capital surplus of £3.3bn.

Last month, Standard Life said it would reimburse 97,000 of its customers who had lost 5% of their money when the value of the company's Pension Sterling Fund, worth £2.1bn, was cut in January.

The insurer had faced a storm of protest from savers and financial advisers who had accused it of misleading them about the fund's underlying investments.