We have no Plan B, warns Treves

EQUITABLE Life has no back-up plan if policyholders vote down the compromise agreement, chairman Vanni Treves has warned. 'There is no Plan B,' he told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost at the weekend. If the agreement is rejected, 'we would do everything we possibly can not to close, but it's a very, very unpleasant, bad future'.

Treves said Equitable might sue those responsible for the life assurer's crisis. 'We are also looking to the past to see what culpability there may have been,' he said. 'If there is culpability on the part of past directors, past advisers, even the regulator, we will take action without fear or favour.'

The 240-year-old mutual sent out ballot papers last week to its 1.1m members. It proposes paying policyholders to give up the guaranteed annuities which last year opened a £1.06bn black hole in its accounts.

It needs to win 50% of votes, representing 75% of funds under management. The voting deadline is 9 January.

Equitable plunged deeper into crisis last week when it revealed that its key with-profits fund shrank by £2.7bn - or 12% - over the summer as savers fled and its stock market investments tumbled. Its financial 'cushion' of free assets shrank from £1.1bn to just £300m by September.