BRIGHT Grey, the Edinburgh-based protection products business being set up by mut-ual life assurer Royal London, is preparing for a no-frills, soft launch next Monday following a six-month delay.
The group, which has had staff working on the secretive venture for more than 18 months, was forced to scrap its planned September 2002 launch.
Bright Grey has consistently played down suggestions by senior industry sources that this was because its sophisticated information technology systems would not be ready in time.
A spokeswoman for Bright Grey last night said: ''We are trying to manage our launch so that on day one we'll be up and running smoothly.
''We are not live yet, we are at the final stage of testing. We don't want to set an expectation in the market that we are unable to meet.''
The launch of Bright Grey echoes the difficult birth of Intelligent Finance (IF), the Edinburgh-based telenet bank of HBOS.
IF was forced to delay its launch in September 2000 because of issues over the readiness of its information technology systems.
Bright Grey will be aiming to sell protection products via independent financial advisers such as life cover, critical illness cover, and income protection.
However, commentators were yesterday predicting a tough initiation for the new firm.
One senior industry source pointed out that five years ago Scottish Provident controlled probably 40% of the protection market, because it is a low- margin business and the big ticket players weren't that interested.
However, since then heavyweight insurers like Aegon, Norwich Union, and Standard Life have either entered the market or beefed up their presence in the hope that they can use their marketing and distribution clout to attract volume.
The source added: ''So the market has become a lot more competitive. The big question is how much room there is at the table for Bright Grey to get their elbows down.''
The source also predicted it would be difficult for Bright Grey to differentiate itself in the market, despite its state of the art information technology systems.
''The big ticket players are quite technologically driven anyway. So any technological issues have really been sharpened up.
The market will not be too forgiving if they don't get it right,'' he said.
Bright Grey is fronted by David Robinson, the former Scottish Provident executive. He has lured many former employees of the Edinburgh-based firm, now owned by Abbey National, to Bright Grey.
The start-up, which employs nearly 200 staff, has previously refuted suggestions that Royal London was concerned about potential returns from the estimated (pounds) 25m to (pounds) 40m invested in the venture.
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