FSA fears over solvency blocked Equitable bonds buy back - papers 3rd Feb

Journalists at the Telegraph say they have seen documents sent to the Treasury which indicated the society wanted to buy back bonds when the coupon was 68%, however, the FSA blocked this move – even though the firm says it was sufficiently solvent to handle the transaction – and was eventually forced to buy back just £180m at a higher coupon of 98% rather than the £260m at 92% the group to then buy back at the end of the year. Information in this matter seems to be crucial as policyholders reacted angrily to the buy back because they believe the deal should have been made when bonds were...