Scottish Widows's long-serving protection head Johnny Timpson is leaving the life and pensions provider to become a consultant.
Timpson, who spent the past six years at Scottish Widows as head of financial protection technical and industry affairs, is set to leave the Lloyds Banking Group on April 14.
He said he will offer his services as a consultant within the financial services sphere, and remain committed to consumer protection and improving consumer outcomes.
Over the past decade, Timpson has become noted widely as an inclusion, diversity and intersectionality champion, winning countless awards for his work in helping promote protection and making things more transparent for the end consumer.
He also holds a number of public office, industry and charity sector roles, most notably Cabinet Office Disability and Access Ambassador for both the insurance and banking sectors; Prime Ministers Champion Group member for dementia communities; and founder and chairman of the Access To Insurance Working Group.
He is also one of the founding members of what will shortly be a community interest company called Gain: the Group for Autism, Insurance and Neurodiversity.
In terms of life after Scottish Widows, he said he intends to offer his services as a "consultant, remaining absolutely focused on improving consumer financial, physical and mental health and also their financial resilience, particularly to income shocks".
Timpson added: "In addition, I remain committed to improving both consumer and small business financial inclusion, as well as access to personal and workplace financial protection and wellbeing solutions".
Additionally, he said he remained committed to "tackling the trust gap and poverty premium faced by low income households and minority groups.
"The importance of these areas of need have been amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic, together with the risk transfer to consumers and businesses that has resulted from a decade of welfare and workplace benefit reform."
A spokesperson for Scottish Widows said: "Johnny has been with Scottish Widows for more than 33 years and has played a pivotal role in developing our products and services as well as leading innovation and best practice in financial services more generally.
"His contribution to our strategy and strengthening market position over the past few years has been unrivalled.
"While we are sorry to see him leave, it’s comforting to know he will remain a strong voice in the industry, as a champion for inclusion and diversity as well as access to insurance for all.”
Earlier this month, Timpson joined his voice to others in the mortgage and protection industry, calling for greater support for homeowners and those at risk of eviction as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
