Keep it mutual, says Standard Life chief exec

The chief executive of troubled insurer Standard Life today told investors that only by keeping the society mutually owned would its performance improve in the long run.

Iain Lumsden said the board “unanimously believes” that keeping mutual status would be in the best interests of the company as a whole.

He added: “By concentrating on what we know best, and providing our customers with improved products at lower costs, we will ensure that our company prospers.

“In this our mutual status plays an important role, because as a mutual we can provide better value to our with-profit policyholders.”

His comments, at Standard Life’s AGM at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), came amid snowballing demands from investors for demutualisation.

Retired teacher David Stonebanks, who is leading calls for demutualisation, is set to use the conference to garner support for a vote on the matter.

He says his bid already has the support of 1,600 policyholders, enough to force an extraordinary general meeting and a vote.

He must wait until July before any meeting can be called, as the society’s rules state that there must be at least three years between demutualisation bids.