Standard Life Aberdeen to lose £80bn assets contract

A second blow to Edinburgh-based financial giant Standard Life Aberdeen has been confirmed, with a contract to remove £80bn of assets under its management.

Lloyds Banking Group has chosen Schroder to take on the investor funds.

These are actively managed by staff rather than tracking the market indices.

Lloyds recently said £30bn was to be taken from Standard Life Aberdeen and placed with US-based BlackRock.

The deal with London-based asset manager Schroder extends to a joint venture in which high net worth clients of retail banking group Lloyds - along with its Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Scottish Widows brands - will have access to wealth management advice.

The deal is for an initial five year period, and should be operational by next April.

• Standard Life sees £100bn contract axed

The Lloyds' decision to remove £109bn of funds from Standard Life Aberdeen was announced last February.

Lloyds had placed its funds, previously managed by Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), with Aberdeen Asset Management in 2013.

But when the Aberdeen firm merged with Standard Life in Edinburgh, Lloyds said that it was going to withdraw its funds from the newly-enlarged company, saying it was a competitor.

Standard Life Aberdeen has contested this and the two companies are now in arbitration.

The shift of assets will go ahead when that arbitration process is over, but a Lloyds source said there is no way back from the decision to remove funds from the Edinburgh firm.