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Friday, 31 March, 2000, 14:20 GMT 15:20 UK
Insurers' customers seek windfall
Insurance worker
A web-based group is behind the demutualisation call
The board of Scottish Provident has promised to give "full consideration" to calls from a group of internet-based policy holders to demutualise.

The mutual life insurer has become the latest financial institution to be targeted by policyholders looking for windfalls - a practice known as carpetbagging.

Scottish Provident acknowledged that the company had received a proposal to convert last Tuesday but declined to comment further.


Office front
Concern over mortgage shortfalls
However, the board has now announced that it would consider the demand in detail.

The call for demutualisation has been led by the web-based Scottish Provident Members Alliance Group.

The group said it was not interested in the short term gain from a windfall but hoped it would help offset the under-performance of their endowment policies.

It said there was great concern among members that mortgage repayment shortfalls would be the result of the poor return on their investments.

In a letter to company secretary Gordon Henderson, SPMAG has demanded an extraordinary meeting to vote on its resolution.

£1bn price tag

SPMAG said it believed the future of Scottish Provident would be best served by joining a "larger and more powerful public limited company."

There are an estimated £750,000 policy holders with Scottish Provident, although only 430,000 would be likely to qualify for windfalls.

Some analysts have put a £1bn price tag on the insurer, which could mean individual windfalls of more than £2,000.

Europe's largest life company, Standard Life, recently rejected a demand from policyholders to demutualise.

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