Morgan Stanley has won its first advisory mandate from Lloyds TSB in nearly a decade, after landing a mandate to oversee the UK financial group's disposal of its closed life insurance unit, which Deutsche Bank today agreed to buy for £977m (€1.4bn) in cash.

News of the sale, which was released in a stock market announcement this morning and coincided with Lloyds TSB's interim results, follows an auction process for the UK group's Abbey Life unit.