Standard Life finance director speculation mounts

There is speculation that troubled UK mutual Standard Life is on the lookout for a new finance director before it demutualises and floats on the stock market.

The speculation comes after the company's annual meeting on Tuesday, in which members of the mutual company, who are all customers, called for the entire board to stand down after taking the directors to task over their hefty bonuses and the reversal of strategy which has led to the demutualisation plans.

John Hylands has been in the post for the past three years and was previously marketing manager since 1994.

He has previously been cited as one of the directors most likely to follow former chief executive Iain Lumsden in having to leave the company.

The company said in March that it would demutualise and float on the stock market to raise money.

At Tuesday's AGM, though, some members questioned how they could trust the directors, some of whom were dead set against demutualisation when policyholders voted on the issue four years ago.

A recent poll showed that some City fund managers are of the opinion that there could be a shake-up of the company’s senior ranks ahead of any flotation to help overcome this lack of experience in running publicly-listed companies.