Lloyds Banking Group has hired Deutsche Bank to prepare it for the potential sale of its Scottish Widows Insurance and Pensions business, according to a report by Reuters.

The new service said that a sale is only one of the options being considered by Lloyds at this stage and that a formal sale has not yet been processed.

SWIP and Lloyds Banking Group declined to comment when contacted by this publication.

SWIP had £146.7 billion (around $225 billion) in assets under management at the end of last month.