Equitable Life

The transfer of £1.8bn worth of with-profits annuity policies from Equitable Life to Prudential has been approved by the High Court.

Equitable Life has announced its first-half 2007 solvency improved 8% on the corresponding period last year.

An eleventh-hour bid to encourage Equitable Life with-profit annuitants to vote in favour of transferring their policies to Prudential will do little to quell scepticism over the move.

Equitable Life is preparing to write to its 400,000 policyholders ahead of a vote on whether it should transfer 50,000 holders of with-profits annuities to Prudential.

A report blaming UK regulators for the Equitable Life crisis has been approved by the European Parliament.

The European Parliament's committee of inquiry into the Equitable Life crisis has slammed UK regulators, including the FSA and the Government, for not moving fast enough to prevent the company's collapse.

Equitable Life has completed the sale of its subsidiary University Life to Reliance Mutual Insurance.

A joint 500-page response from the FSA, Treasury and Government Actuary's Department has delayed the Parliamentary Ombudsman's report into the collapse of Equitable Life until at least the end of the year.

Equitable Life victims should be fully compensated by the UK government, according to a Conservative MEP.

In the absence of the UK Parliament providing pensions news, attention turns to the European Parliament and the Committee of Inquiry into the collapse of Equitable Life.