Equitable Life

Equitable has just agreed to transfer most of its non-profit pension annuity business to Canada Life, amounting to around 130,000 policies and assets worth over £4.6bn.

THE BREAK-UP of Equitable Life has moved closer following the launch yesterday of a vulture fund, Synesis, backed by some of the City's most powerful institutions, to buy out distressed annuity and pension liabilities, reports The Guardian .

Equitable Life reiterated its desire to sell its business either as a whole or in parts yesterday as it released its annual results for 2005, claiming last year had seen it make solid progress.

A PARLIAMENTARY watchdog's long-awaited report into what went wrong at Equitable Life and whether government departments were at fault, has been delayed and is unlikely to appear until October at the earliest, reports The Guardian .

The committee investigating the actions of both government and regulators in realtion to troubles at Equitable Life will include seven UK MEPs, one of whom is the controversial UKIP member Godfrey Bloom.

Members of the European Parliament have today voted to set up a committee to investigate the actions of both government and regulators in respect of the troubles at Equitable Life.

The role of the FSA, conduct of business regulations and European law will all be questioned by a special committee being set up by the European Parliament to investigate the decline of Equitable Life.

THE EUROPEAN Parliament is to hold a formal "committee of inquiry" into the Equitable Life debacle following fierce campaigning by policyholders, reports this morning's Daily Telegraph .

LORD TURNER was last night on a collision course with Gordon Brown over the affordability of State pension reforms that will be unveiled by the peer's commission next week, reports the Financial Times.

PRUDENTIAL IS in talks with troubled mutual insurer Equitable Life and at least two other insurers about buying up books of annuities, according to this morning's papers.