Royal London has appointed Simon Cocker as head of new markets for its national partnerships.

He will be responsible for developing the reach of distribution of Royal London’s brands beyond the intermediary market and will report to Andy Peters, national partnerships director for Royal London’s intermediary division.

He joins from Dunfermline Building Society where he was head of business development.

Peters said: “This is a new strategic role which will be a key part of our ambition to expand our distribution reach beyond our core intermediary market and we’re very pleased to have Simon on board.