Lord Penrose has on several occasions within his report accused Roy Ranson, former appointed actuary at Equitable Life between 1992 and 1997, of "maxwellisation" and of presenting a misleading picture of the company's finances to the board.
In chapter 19 of the 800+ page Moreover, Penrose's personal comments within the report state: "I found Ranson to be highly intelligent and articulate, but manipulative. I was not persuaded that his memory was as inconsistent as he asserted, nor that he put the Society's affairs so completely behind him at this retirement that he could not comment on some of the matters that were put to him." Information on regulatory returns appears to suggest the process under which Ranson operated was inappropriate and weakened the firm from 1983 onwards because: the practice of using a 'quasi...
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