Nationwide Life Insurance Co. will pay an $8 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission after the agency found that the insurer deliberately delayed receipt of variable annuity and life insurance policy orders, resulting in a failure to price them in a timely manner, Investment News reported. The SEC announced its findings, the charges against Nationwide and the penalty Thursday. According to the SEC, from October 1995 to September 2011, the insurer instructed its couriers to delay collecting the mail for annuity orders until after 4 p.m. so that the orders would be priced the next day. There were no allegations by the SEC that the practice benefited the company or certain groups of investors over others, the SEC said in a statement, and the agency acknowledged that Nationwide has changed its practices.