Royal London Increases Efficiency and Security with Mailock

Cybercrime is evolving fast, and financial institutions face growing pressure to secure sensitive data - and to evidence this.

Royal London, the UK’s largest mutual life, pensions, and investment company, joined Aegon as another major provider to adopt Mailock for secure email.

They've been using the solution since 2021 to streamline communications with advisers and customers while reducing cyber risk, carbon emissions, and operational friction.

Who Are They?

Royal London is the UK’s largest mutual life, pensions, and investment business.

With a long heritage and a broad customer base, they’ve made significant investments into technology to support security, efficiency, and regulatory compliance.

The Challenge

Before switching to Mailock, Royal London operated two separate encrypted email systems - one for engaging customers and one for corresponding with advisers.

This created inefficiencies and complexity, both for internal teams and external recipients.

"Upgrading to Mailock has improved matters greatly in that it has allowed us to move to one system, one that can be used for both the adviser and the end customer."

John McGlynn, Sales Business Change Manager, Royal London

The Solution

A Complete Solution

Mailock enabled Royal London to consolidate their secure email processes into a single solution. It provides encrypted messaging across audiences while simplifying compliance and governance oversight.

Unipass Identity Authentication

Advisers can access secure emails using Unipass Identity - already in use by 8 in 10 UK financial advisers - making Mailock a frictionless part of their workflow.

"Our advisers need to be able to open and read our emails instantaneously, so any authenticator can’t put a process in place that prevents this from happening and stops the required instant ping-pong of emails between providers and advisers. Happily, Mailock doesn’t."

John McGlynn, Sales Business Change Manager, Royal London

Smooth Implementation

The Mailock rollout was carefully coordinated between Royal London’s internal teams and the Beyond Encryption team.

Their admin users adopted the system quickly and have since reported positive feedback.

"We had a dedicated project team here and a series of meetings with the Mailock team to plan and execute. Great care was taken in the roll-out, working closely with the Mailock team on delivery, comms, and support."

John McGlynn, Sales Business Change Manager, Royal London

The Outcome

Part of the ESG Roadmap

Royal London’s use of Mailock aligns with its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives.

By digitising formerly paper-based communication, they’re reducing emissions, aligning with COP26 goals, and cutting postage costs.

"Anything that can be sent electronically is sent electronically and using Mailock ties in with every stated principle of our ESG commitments. There is no doubt that having a secure and industry-recognised encryption facility allows us to save on paper and postage costs when sending information that previously could only be sent by post."

John McGlynn, Sales Business Change Manager, Royal London

Increased Efficiency

Since deployment, Royal London has reported time savings, streamlined support queries, and a positive reception from advisers.

"Efficiency-wise the introduction of Mailock has made a big difference. It has allowed us to move to one system for all, making a significant financial saving and its capabilities mean that we spend far less time fielding queries or solving issues than we did previously. It has also had an impact right across the Royal London business in that previous inconsistencies in approach between different business areas have been removed.

Feedback from advisers so far has been excellent. The ease of access through a Unipass log-in or the alternative simplicity of receiving a verification code to proceed has been welcomed. Sure, there have been queries from advisers, but these are always usually more to do with the fact we have encrypted something rather than the methodology deployed.

From a governance, data security and ease of use point of view what we gain is significant and allows us to demonstrate to our advisers/customers that we take protecting their data seriously, at the same time as offering them an industry platform on which to use, receive, and send free of charge. The ultimate reward for us is the Mailock system having no detrimental effect on our ability to write and meet our new business targets each year."

John McGlynn, Sales Business Change Manager, Royal London