Crombie new Standard Life CEO as Lumsden goes

Standard Life has unexpectedly parted company with chief executive Iain Lumsden after less than two years.

Europe's largest mutual insurer, has also announced that it is to raise £750m (€1,085.97m) of new capital and confirmed it was ready to abandon its commitment to mutual ownership.

Deputy chief executive Sandy Crombie is to replace Lumsden, who was with the group for 36 years.

The Edinburgh-based group, which has 2.6m with-profits policyholders, said it had completed "constructive discussions" with the Financial Services Authority and insisted its financial position was very strong.

The FSA said that while it welcomed steps taken by Standard Life to strengthen its capital position, it would send in a team of outside accountants to investigate a ‘significant divergence’ between how SL calculated its liabilities now and a year ago, when the regulator first requested a more stringent calculation.