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Morley, one of the UK's leading active fund managers and the fund management arm of Aviva plc, announces the appointment of Colin Cookson as head of liquidity business development.

Colin joins Morley from HSBC where he held the position of director, business development for their global liquidity business, selling liquidity funds to a broad range of institutional and corporate clients in the UK and Europe.

Colin will be responsible for continuing Morley's development as one of the leading UK providers of money market funds, broadening Morley's product offering and generating increased business volumes from a wide range of institutional and corporate clients. 

Colin will work to increase the client base for Morley's liquidity products in a market that has shown considerable growth over the past decade. The liquidity market in Europe was worth US$350 billion at the end of December 2006, compared with US$130 billion at the end of December 2002 and less than a billion dollars in 1995, according to industry data.

"Cash managers are increasingly recognising liquidity funds to be an effective cash management tool. With over £15 billion in cash under management and a consistently strong performing liquidity fund, Morley is already a significant player in this space. However, we are keen to increase our product offering in order to meet the increasing demand for products that achieve clients' desire for funds that offer varying levels of security, flexibility and return," said Richard Warne, head of UK institutional business development. "Colin has a strong track record in money market products and we're delighted to welcome him on board to spearhead our product development and growth in this exciting sector."

Colin has over eight years experience in this sector and prior to joining HSBC, he worked in a similar role at Mellon Global Investments.

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For more information contact:
Fiona Baker
Corporate Communications
Telephone: 020 7809 8617

Notes to editors:

Morley
Morley is the UK-based asset management business of Aviva plc. Firms within the Morley group of companies manage £168bn (€250bn) from offices around the world as at 30 June 2007.  

Morley manages both institutional and retail funds. It also acts as investment manager for a range of retail investment funds, marketed in the UK under the Norwich Union brand and in Europe under the Morley name. The property team manages in excess of £32bn (€48bn) of UK and European property assets.

Awards

• Morley ranks no.1 fund manager in the Thomson Extel SRI Survey, 2007
• Property Manager of the Year, UK Pensions Awards 2007
• Morley's G7 Fund awarded Fixed Income Hedge Fund of the Year, Eurohedge Awards 2007
• Equity End User of the Year - Derivatives Week DEAL Awards 2006
• Property Fund Manager of the Year, Pensions Management Awards 2006
• Best Commitment to Raising Standards of Trustee Education, Engaged Investor Awards 2006
• Property Fund Manager of the Year, Property Week Awards 2006
• SRI Provider of the Year, Global Pensions 2006
• Central European Property Awards 2005 - Outstanding Company of the Year & Investor of the Year
• UK Pensions Awards 2005 - Property Manager of the Year
• Property Week Awards 2004 - Best Property Fund Manager

With more than 90 investment professionals, Morley's Property team manages a range of funds on behalf of institutional, pension and retail clients. Morley has been at the forefront of innovation in property fund management and has launched fourteen specialist sector based funds with partners, including: Igloo Regeneration Fund, Quercus Healthcare Property, The Junction and The Mall. Further information about Morley can be found at http://www.morleyfm.com/

Aviva

• Aviva is the leading provider of life and pensions to Europe with substantial positions in other markets around the world, making it the world's fifth largest insurance group based on gross worldwide premiums at 31 December 2006.
• Aviva's principal business activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £41.5 billion and assets under management of £364 billion at 31 December 2006.
• The Aviva media centre at www.aviva.com/media includes images, company and product information and a news release archive.