The over-50s insurance and travel group Saga is close to signing a deal with NatWest to extend its brand deeper into personal banking products.
The company disclosed the new alliance as it reported good growth in cruises and holiday bookings and said in a statement alongside its annual meeting that it was trading in line with expectations.
The new partnership will run alongside an existing arrangement with Goldman Sachs, which has been bumping up against regulatory limits on the size of deposits it can take as a result of UK ringfence rules.
Saga said it hoped to kick off the alliance with a new Saga-branded savings account before launching into other unspecified personal banking products.
The company had de-emphasised its personal finance offering as it grappled with big problems in its core insurance division ten years ago but since 2022, with the hiring of Gerry Toher from Royal London, has started to rebuild its franchise.
• Plain sailing for Saga as cruise sales buoy results
The money division offers equity release products and other mortgages, savings products, will-writing and probate services and investments. Its revenues were flat last year at £5.6 million but underlying profits fell from £1.1 million to £700,000.
In 2023 Saga signed a partnership deal with the fintech business Flagstone to offer customers a curated choice of fixed rate savings accounts. It also has a partnership arrangement with Hubwise to offers stocks and shares Isas.
Saga said: “We are pleased to announce that we have agreed heads of terms and are now in final negotiations with NatWest for a range of personal banking products, starting with a new savings proposition. This partnership would combine NatWest’s scale and banking capabilities with our customer insight and marketing strengths and support our ambition to continue growing our money business.”
After it floated in 2014 investors lost more than 90 per cent of their capital but under a new capital-light strategy led by Mike Hazell, the chief executive, has stabilised and started to show signs of recovery. The shares are up 41 per cent this year after Hazell sold assets, clinched an alliance with the Belgian insurer Ageas and repaid some debt.
Saga’s river and ocean cruise boats are already 95 and 93 per cent fully booked respectively for the six months to July 31, which is ahead of the same point last year.
The planned sale of its insurance underwriting business to Ageas was progressing well and on track for completion by July 31.
Mike Hazell, the Saga chief executive, said he was focused on continuing to grow the travel and money businesses
The insurance broking division was also trading in line with expectations and was on track to be handed to Ageas to manage in the fourth quarter of 2025 as part of a 20-year partnership deal.
Hazell, who was paid £1.89 million last year, said: “I am pleased to report that Saga has started the financial year on a positive note, with all our businesses performing well and in line with expectations. Looking ahead, we are focused on continuing to grow our travel and money businesses, while successfully transitioning to our new simplified insurance model. We are progressing well with our medium-term plans and the potential new partnership with NatWest is another good example of this.”
Saga shares closed up 4p, or 2.3 per cent higher to 175½p, their highest for more than two years.
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