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Norwich Union – the UK’s largest life insurer– today started communicating its total commitment to theindustry Raising Standards Initiative in a briefing document beingsent out to key IFAs and business partnerships.

The briefing document explains what the initiative means forNorwich Union and also the IFA industry and also it's importance ininstilling greater consumer confidence in the life assuranceindustry.

The Raising Standards Initiative will help to ensure thatconsumers have a better and clearer understanding of the productsthey are buying through Norwich Union delivering on three keypromises of:

Greater clarity and comparability of information through:

• Simpler and clearer key features and illustrations
• Simpler and clearer post sale information
• More informative annual statements

• Ensuring appropriateness of the products purchasedthrough:

• Extending the cooling-off period for most products to 30 days(excluding annuities and pension transfers)
• New layouts of key features and illustrations to allow easiercomparison of products
• A first class complaints handling procedure

Better customer service through:

• More contact information to allow customers to get in touchwhen and however it suits them
• A regular customer satisfaction survey to ensure service meetsthe benchmark for accreditation

Commenting on the Raising Standards Initiative, Peter Hales,sales & marketing director for Norwich Union, said: “TheRaising Standards Initiative is a major step forward for theindustry and Norwich Union in helping to strengthen consumerconfidence - this will be good news for IFAs, product providers andultimately the customer.

“We have invested considerable time and resources inensuring we met the submission deadlines for first waveaccreditation. By combining our product range, service, investmentperformance and added value services for IFAs, together with theRaising Standards Quality Mark, we will have a market-leadingpackage. ”

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Notes to editors:

• CGU plc and Norwich Union plc merged on 30 May 2000 to createCGNU plc, the UK’s largest insurance group and one of thetop-five insurers in Europe with substantial positions in othermarkets around the world, making it the world’s sixthlargest insurer based on gross worldwide premiums.
• CGNU’s principal business activities are long-termsavings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwidepremium income and retail investment sales from ongoing businessof over £27 billion and assets under management of more than £210billion.
• From October 2000, the combined life and pensions, generalinsurance and retail fund management businesses in the UK operateunder the Norwich Union brand, while the institutional investmentbusiness operates under the Morley Fund Management brand.
• Norwich Union’s news releases are available on thiswebsite.