Sarah Lord hits back at 'disingenuous' CII after PFS board takeover

Lord, who served as PFS president from 2022 to 2022, said the CII's decision - which saw it immediately add three CII directors to equalise the make-up of the PFS board and confirmation of its intention to add another CII director to take overall control - was a "deeply cynical move".

Lord said: "The orchestration of the announcement that we have witnessed today shows that this is a pre-meditated decision. I have until very recently been in conversations with the CII leadership and we have engaged in mediation at their request. The conversations were still underway.

"It is extraordinary that they have been so disingenuous."

Lord added that the CII had acted in an "aggressive way" which was likely designed to diminish the existing PFS board's powers and undermine its forward-looking strategy.

"I will do all I can over the coming weeks to ensure the PFS, its members and the profession's interests are protected," she added.

Another past president also weighed in. Garry Hale was PFS president from 2012 to 2013. He said: "I am shocked, stunned and angered that the CII has chosen today to take the harmful and cynical decision to announce its intention to ‘flood' the PFS board with CII nominee directors.

"The timing of this on the eve of Christmas celebrations is a blatant attempt to avoid scrutiny, avoid CII/PFS member backlash, avoid journalists' questions and prevent regulators and politicians from actively understanding or mediating the decision in the full knowledge that the majority of the members, sector journalists and regulators will be off work and with their families, in many cases for the first time in three years.

"I would urge all PFS members to speak out and raise any concerns they have about this potentially damaging move."  

Earlier today, the CII told members of its plans to equalise the membership of the PFS and plans to appoint a majority of directors.

It said long-running mediation over its future had failed and "significant governance failures" had emerged.

CII chief executive (CEO) Alan Vance said: "The CII team worked hard for many months, initiating independent mediation, and responding to the PFS board's requests diligently and professionally. Therefore, it is deeply disappointing that mediation has failed and significant governance failures have arisen, which leave the CII group board with no alternative but to take this action at this juncture and resolve matters without further delay."

In September, the bodies said they had reached an agreement in principle over a range of matters they disagreed about after "full, detailed and constructive discussions". However, that agreement appears to have been premature.

The bodies have been in dispute for many months following initial moves to de-register the PFS by the CII, under its former CEO Sian Fisher, in 2021. The CII also initially decided the PFS did not need a CEO but altered its plans and began recruiting for a replacement one year after its dissolved the role.

It followed the exit of long-time chief executive Keith Richards in April 2021, after eight years in the job. It had also been in the process of running a consultation on the body's future called 'Shaping the Future Together'.