Legal & General - (en)
Legal & General Group Plc is a British based financial services
company that provides life, health and other insurance, as well as
pensions and investments. It is headquartered in London and its shares
trade on the London Stock Exchange as part of the FTSE 100 Index. As well
as the United Kingdom, other major markets include France, Germany, the
Netherlands and the United States.
Today the company continues to offer a wide range of products and has
alliances to sell their insurance products to the customers of Barclays
Bank, Alliance & Leicester, Birmingham Midshires, Norwich and
Peterborough Building Society, National Australia Bank, Bank of Ireland,
Bradford & Bingley, Chelsea Building Society, and Sainsbury's Bank.
Legal & General was formed in June 1836 by six lawyers in a Chancery
Lane coffee shop. Originally called the New Law Life Assurance Society,
the society was restricted to those in the legal profession. The name was
changed to Legal & General Life Assurance Society to reflect that
policies were available to the general public but with share ownership
restricted to those in the legal profession.
The group expanded in the UK and soon began to acquire overseas life
assurance companies, purchasing the Metropolitan Life Assurance Company of
New York in the 1930s.
In 1956 Life business was set up in Australia.
The society became a wholly owned division of Legal & General Group
Plc in the 1970s.
During the 1980s Legal & General bought two more life assurance
societies in the USA, another in the Netherlands and set up business in
France.
The previous Legal & General logo incorporates the image of the Temple
Bar (which is still used in the logo of the company's social and athletic
committee), and the founding date. The umbrella logo used today was
introduced in June 1984.
In 1999, Legal & General announced plans to merge its business with
that of the National Westminster Bank to form the first 'bancassurance'
company in the UK. However, poor market reception to the deal saw the
Royal Bank of Scotland bid for the National Westminster, and the merger
deal collapsed.
Legal & General Australia was sold in 1998. In 2002, Northern Rock
bought the Legal & General Bank and Legal & General Mortgage
Services.
In 2005 Legal & General sold its stake in Gresham its joint venture
with Barclays.
