U.K. COURT APPROVES INSURANCE BUSINESS TRANSFER SCHEME
A court in the United Kingdom has approved the transfer of the entire long-term insurance business of Prudential Annuities Limited (PAL) to The Prudential Assurance Company Limited (PAC). The transfer’s purpose was to simplify the corporate structure of Prudential UK’s business, improve the flexibility and efficiency of capital management, and facilitate Prudential’s response to regulatory developments. The transfer affected approximately 134,000 contracts of long-term insurance business, all non-profit pension policies, and approximately 90,000 policyholders. Regulators did not object to the transfer and an independent expert and three actuaries all supported it.
PAL was already an asset of the PAC fund to which its business was transferred and, since 2012, the vast majority of PAL’s business had been reinsured by that fund. The court found that the reinsurance arrangements for the transfer significantly restricted the ability of the PAC fund to “walk away” from PAL and agreed with the independent expert that there would be no adverse change to either PAL or PAC policyholders from the transfer. Finding that all requirements of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 had been met, the court sanctioned the transfer of business. In the Matter of Prudential Annuities Ltd., [2014] EWHC 4770 (Ch.) (High Courts of Justice (Chancery Division) Cos. Ct.) Nov. 13, 2014).
This post written by Renee Schimkat.
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