OREANDA-NEWS. The Independent Governance Committees (IGC) of Aviva and Friends Life have merged to create one IGC which oversees the combined business. Friends Life became part of the Aviva Group in April 2015 and integration work has been ongoing since then to bring the two organisations together.

The new, expanded IGC will adopt the commitments made by both previous committees to deliver value for money, and will represent the interests of over 3 million Aviva and Friends Life workplace pension customers.

Inder Dhingra, Director at Law Debenture Pension Trustees Limited and chair of the original Aviva IGC, will Chair the new committee. He will be supported by Steve Carrodus, Director at Pitmans Trustees Ltd and the previous Chair of the Friends Life IGC. Robert Talbut and Marcia Campbell will remain as independent members. Colin Williams, MD of Workplace Savings at Aviva, and Craig Hunter, Commercial, Propositions and Change Director at Aviva, complete the membership.

Inder Dhingra said: “I am delighted to have been asked to Chair the Independent Governance Committee of Aviva UK Life, and am very much looking forward to the challenges ahead. IGCs play a vital role in representing members of workplace pensions and ensuring that they are receiving value for money from their pension provider. The new IGC provides an excellent blend of skills and experience, and provides good continuity of membership between the two previous committees”.

Andy Curran, Managing Director, Corporate and Business Solutions at Aviva, said: “The merging of the two IGCs is another important milestone in the integration of Aviva and Friends Life. Both IGCs carried out some great work in their first year on behalf of members. It is important that we now bring the expertise from both committees together to build on this and to serve the combined business. Having one IGC overseeing all our workplace pension schemes will ensure a level of consistency for members and means the IGC will have a view across the combined business of Aviva and Friends Life.”