Standard Life Aberdeen comments on FCA enforcement action against Standard Life Assurance Limited

Standard Life Aberdeen comments on FCA enforcement action against Standard Life Assurance Limited

Today, 23 July 2019, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published an announcement about the conclusion of its review into Standard Life Assurance Limited’s non-advised annuity telephony practices.

This announcement relates to historic sales of annuities by Standard Life Assurance Limited (SLAL) that occurred during the period July 2008 to May 2016. SLAL is now owned by the Phoenix Group following the sale of our UK and European insurance business in 2018.

Neither Standard Life Aberdeen plc, nor any of the companies currently within the group, is the subject of this investigation. However, we recognise these failures happened while SLAL was part of Standard Life plc, which subsequently became Standard Life Aberdeen plc, and we are sorry for the impact this had on some customers.

When the issues relating to non-advised annuity telephony practices came to light, a programme of work was initiated by Standard Life plc to tighten up guidance processes, oversight and controls.

Since the FCA investigation commenced in 2016, we have worked closely with and cooperated fully with the FCA.

Working with the FCA, SLAL initiated a Past Business Review, which is ongoing under Phoenix Group ownership, to redress those customers which the review determines have been impacted by the issues identified. SLAL has confirmed that all customers affected have been contacted to begin their annuity review and over 80% of cases have been resolved. The customer remediation programme continues to progress well and is expected to be complete by the end of this year.

If you are a customer with a question, you can find more information here.

Standard Life Aberdeen plc provided for an estimate of the financial impact of the indemnity provided to the Phoenix Group as part of the gain on the sale in our 2018 full year results. As a result of this indemnity provision there is no material impact of the FCA’s enforcement action on our 2019 results.