Salmond attacks Standard Life demutualisation

Commenting on the demutualisation and job losses announced by the board of Standard Life today [Wednesday], the Scottish National Party’s Westminster leader Mr Alex Salmond MP (who led a Commons debate on 4 February on the threat to the mutual status of Standard Life) said:

“This is a sad, bad day for the Scottish financial sector.

“Standard Life has marketed itself as a mutual company for 80 years in a hugely successful way. It has now fallen into the hands of a board which has allowed itself to be chased into demutualisation by the Financial Services Authority.

“The board will now have to stand on their heads compared to their previous statements, and deny everything that they have said about the clear benefits of mutualisation for so long – including the evidence that policy holders in mutuals have done better than in PLCs.

“This is a bad deal for policy holders, a bad deal for staff, and a bad deal for the Scottish financial services industry. On the evidence of previous demutualisations, the independence and Scottish base of this company will now come into play.

“There was absolutely no need for Standard Life, a successful company, to be placed in this position, and equally no need for the board to succumb to the prejudice against mutualisation displayed by the FSA – an organisation whose primary interest in financial regulation is covering their own backs.”