According to the Chairman of Equitable Life, Vanni Treves, the company's finances are stabilising. Despite the move to reduce the exposure of the with profits fund to equities, the fund has returned profits of 4.8% and interim bonuses of 3.5% have been stated for policyholders.
In terms of solvency, Equitable has managed to reach the level required by the industry regulator, the Financial Services Authority. However, to do this they had to include £200m of future profits.
Equitable is currently reconsidering policyholder compensation following an accountancy report commissioned by the Equitable Members Action Group. According to this report, evidence has been revealed to show policyholders could have been warned of potential problems in the early 1990's.
Despite meeting the solvency margin, Vanni Treves said, "Although responding to treatment, we are some way off declaring a clean bill of health".