Couple: We were conned into investing

THE Government has been accused of being “worse than useless” for its lack of support for thousands of Irish people who lost major portions of their pension savings as a result of the near-collapse of British insurance society Equitable Life.

A European Parliament committee has begun hearings into the Equitable Life debacle in which 6,500 Irish investors lost out millions of euro of promised returns on their pension investments.

A retired couple from Dublin who bought policies from Equitable, Pat and Beatrice Knowd, yesterday gave evidence to the committee in Brussels.

Ms Knowd said she believed they were "conned" into investing in Equitable in the late 1990s.

The couple claimed they had also invested a huge amount of time, money and energy in attempting to get answers and some form of redress for the losses they had suffered.

Ms Knowd complained about Equitable Life's treatment of its clients after its policies had failed to live up to their expectations.

She also claimed the Irish Government had done nothing to help the Irish investors in Equitable Life before the establishment of the parliament committee.

The committee, chaired by Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness, also includes Labour MEP Prionsias de Rossa and Fianna Fáil MEP Seán Ó Neachtain.

Last night, Ms McGuinness said the Knowds had helped all Irish investors by highlighting their own case.

"Their evidence shows the differences between victims of Equitable Life in different countries, with a perception that Irish policyholders and other non-UK policyholders were discriminated against," she said.

As a result of alleged mismanagement and failure to comply with EU law, Equitable was unable to pay €2.16 billion to honour its pledge to over one million policyholders in 2000.

Because of the financial shortfall in the society's with-profits funds, policyholders had to accept dramatic losses and cuts to their savings and private retirement pensions to prevent Equitable's collapse.

The committee is examining if relevant EU legislation was properly applied in Britain both by British authorities and the monitoring of community law by the European Commission.

The Equitable Members' Action Group has accused British financial regulators of consistently failed to protect policyholders by rigorous supervision of the company's finances and accounts. It claims the real losses suffered by clients exceed €5 billion.

Ms McGuinness said the establishment of the committee provided positive proof of the commitment of MEPs to get answers and some justice for Equitable Life policyholders.

However, she said it was still too early to draw conclusions about the eventual outcome of the hearings.

The committee of inquiry will publish its interim report on Equitable in July with the final report due to be finished by March 2007.