The 132-year-old Scottish Life and 176-year-old Scottish Provident names are to disappear in a rebranding exercise by parent Royal London.

Scottish Life has survived as Royal London's pensions brand since it was acquired by the fellow-mutual in 2000, while Scottish Provident has lived on as a protection brand since being acquired in 2008 from Phoenix, which however still runs the closed ScotProv life fund.

Now Royal London, after appointing a "brand strategy and creative agency" in July, has confirmed that it will move to a "master brand" over the next two years for its UK life, pensions and investment businesses.

Bright Grey, the Edinburgh-based protection insurer set up in 2003, will also disappear.

Phil Loney, chief executive, said: "By moving to a single brand we can emphasise the scale and reach of Royal London across the investment, pension and protection markets, and seek to make the benefits of our mutual approach tangible for all of our customers."

Mr Loney said Royal London's scale meant it could not always claim to have the best prices. "We want to compete by differentiating ourselves in creating the best customer experience and results, rooted in our mutuality."

But he said the strategy had not been driven by the mutual's move into direct-to-consumer selling, and the group remained committed to the adviser market served by the Edinburgh-based brands. Mr Loney said the group remained committed to Scotland, where "we employ more people than we ever have before".

He said the Office of Fair Trading report on pension charges signalled the potential for a dramatic reduction in costs of up to 40% over the next 20 years.

"We need a competitive market to get that back to pension members, not to company shareholders," he said.

Scottish Life was the target of pensions minister Steve Webb's wrath in the banning of "consultancy charging" on auto-enrolment pension schemes. Now the minister is considering a ban on all auto-enrolment commission.

On auto-enrolment Mr Loney said: "Absolutely the principle is the same as consultancy charging, on the other hand if you end commission overnight, that would affect the amount of adviser capacity for auto-enrolment."