HM Treasury News Release
160/97 11 December 1997
__________________________________________________________________
HELEN LIDDELL WARNS THAT ALL FIRMS MUST PULL THEIR WEIGHT IN
THE REVIEW OF PERSONAL PENSIONS MIS-SELLING
All pensions firms, including the thousands of firms that are not
being individually monitored by the Treasury, must get their act
together and speed up their processing of cases, Helen Liddell,
Economic Secretary, said today.
Mrs Liddell spoke after she published the latest monthly progress
statistics in response to a Parliamentary question. This
revealed the position at the end of November for each of 41
pensions companies which together account for about four out of
every five cases for review. The figures show continuing
variation in firms' performance, with many firms making headway,
but too many still lagging behind.
Publishing the figures Mrs Liddell said :
"There is no cut-off point that makes a firm too small to
be expected to honour the personal pensions review. Each and
every firm - from the large household names to the smallest IFA
- must get on with the urgent task of processing cases and
making redress where it is due. No-one is off the hook.
"Although much of the focus in the press has been on larger
firms, I have not forgotten about the thousands of smaller
firms, and neither have the regulators."
Commenting on the figures, Mrs Liddell said :
"Too many people are still facing long delays in getting the
redress that is due to them. A few firms are now making
very promising progress, but there is still a long way to go for
most of the firms listed, and sadly some have still not
progressed beyond the initial stages.
"Regulatory discipline is fast becoming a real prospect for
some companies. It is now up to each firm to make every
effort to make rapid progress so that the powers I outlined
in the House of Commons last month do not need to be used."
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Treasury publishes monthly information about how fast
the top 41 pension companies are dealing with their cases.
The figures for the end of November are attached.
2. On 18 November in a Statement to the House of Commons, Mrs
Liddell outlined a package of sanctions aimed at
maintaining the pressure on pension firms to meet their
targets for resolving mis-selling cases. Following this, on
1 December, the Personal Investment Authority (PIA)announced
that from May 1998, directors and senior managers
of its larger member firms would be registered
individually, and thus subject to direct disciplinary
action. All key individuals will be registered from October
1998.
3. Recent fines include :
Albany Life December 1997 375,000 Pounds
DBS Financial Management Ltd September 1997 425,000 Pounds
Friends Provident September 1997 450,000 Pounds
M&E Network September 1997 100,000 Pounds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A B C D E F G H
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Under 25% of cases resolved
DBS 598 19 68 59 9 6 1 14
Burns Anderson 922 46 100 79 21 17 2 15
Gan 10,424 400 1,831 274 1,557 1,030 10 16
Lincoln National 12,938 1,026 2,284 735 1,549 1,118 9 22
Countrywide 2,692 455 214 208 6 8 0 25
25-50% of cases resolved
Windsor Life 8,325 1,508 895 95 800 572 7 26
Financial Options 295 72 11 7 4 3 1 28
Canada Life 5,454 196 1,834 402 1,432 1,126 21 32
Friends Provident 6,675 825 1,927 325 1,602 1,222 18 36
London and Manchester 7,935 662 2,809 389 2,420 1,907 24 37
Royal & Sun Alliance 15,342 1,704 5,406 736 4,670 3,643 24 40
Brittanic 18,290 3,414 4,522 1,906 2,616 1,960 11 40
CIS 43,285 2,724 16,260 11,294 4,966 3,392 8 40
United Assurance 12,326 742 4,894 1,565 3,329 2,843 23 42
Standard Life 6,672 449 2,517 952 1,565 1,405 21 42
Abbey Life 16,883 3,836 3,872 839 3,033 2,436 14 42
Hill Samuel 5,931 743 2,123 434 1,689 1,345 23 43
Sun Life of Canada 25,937 6,374 6,580 1,188 5,392 3,531 14 43
Colonial 8,048 1,879 2,193 297 1,929 1,385 17 44
Allied Dunbar 18,186 2,508 6,446 2,475 3,971 3,088 17 44
Godwins 1,358 47 648 287 361 291 21 46
Albany Life 2,844 503 1,330 95 1,235 721 25 46
NatWest 14,069 3,462 4,125 834 3,291 2,408 17 48
Lloyd's TSB 48,200 8,302 17,190 5,195 11,995 10,480 22 50
50-75% of cases resolved
IFA Network 209 31 81 64 17 11 5 51
Guardian 8,732 860 4,321 733 3,588 2,847 33 51
Commercial Union 7,462 1,012 3,514 693 2,821 2,276 31 53
Pearl 42,505 2,370 26,272 4,833 21,439 15,799 37 54
Sedgwick 11,511 4,253 2,405 951 1,454 1,059 9 54
Prudential 71,358 16,559 42,542 3,294 39,248 19,119 27 55
Royal London 11,432 959 6,684 1,248 5,436 4,120 36 55
Midland 4,787 339 2,856 448 2,408 1,923 40 57
Norwich Union 7,166 2,061 2,452 562 1,890 1,589 22 59
Wesleyan 4,132 222 2,488 732 1,756 1,478 36 59
Legal & General 35,354 13,504 11,921 1,367 10,554 7,803 22 64
Berkeley Independent 86 47 8 8 1 1 1 65
Hogg Robinson 1,922 734 730 248 482 329 17 68
M&E Network 273 151 43 14 29 25 9 70
Equitable Life 11,100 5,575 2,745 1,242 1,503 1,207 11 72
Over 75% of cases resolved
Barclays 16,821 5,973 7,735 1,893 5,842 4,785 28 75
AXA Equity and Law 3,855 684 2,493 652 1,841 1,576 41 76
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A: cases identified as requiring review
B: of A, cases where investor was informed that information gained during assessment
excluded cases from review
C: number of assessments completed
D: cases where the investor has been informed that no
redress is due.
E: cases where redress has been offered
F: cases where redress has been accepted.
G: cases where redress has been accepted as a percentage of cases identified for review
((F/A)x100).
H: cases completed, including exclusions, as a percentage of cases identified for review
(((B+D+F)/A)x100).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------