Leave it alone
STANDARD Life is the biggest mutually- owned life assurance office in Europe, so it must have done something right, and mutu- ality may suit it. That premise will be put to the test in ten days' time, when its members vote on a proposal, put forward by a policy- holder based in Monte Carlo, to turn it into a limited company. Visions of windfalls are dancing before them. Before they reach out and grab, they should pause and reflect on the fate of the Halifax, which used to be the biggest building society in the world. Then, in an evil hour, it turned itself into a limited company and became a bank. The adjust- ment proved difficult. There seemed to be quite a lot of other banks, and more and more of them every day, and the Halifax had not been guaranteed a place in the first divi- sion. It had more capital than it knew what to do with, and it lost customers. Boardroom commotions followed. Now the Halifax is trying again with If, which is its intemet bank, run by a team poached from Standard Life. If I were counting on a policy from Standard Life to look after me in my old age, I would be voting to leave things alone.
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