Legal & General has begun wearing its heart on its sleeve of late. Even the lifts at One Coleman Street, its iconic London HQ, are wallpapered with newspaper articles trumpeting the insurer’s social relevance – visitors are left in no doubt how many houses L&G financed last year or the number of pensions it paid to the elderly.

But for Paul Stanworth, head of treasury and investments, who is responsible for L&G's £43 billion in-house investment portfolio and advises on the management of its with-profits funds worth £17 billion, there is a financial ambition behind this social role.