Standard
Life - (en)
Standard Life was Europe's largest mutual company, as its shareholders
voted for demutualisation as was widely expected in 2006. Established
in 1825, Standard Life is a major employer in Edinburgh, with 7,500
employees in Scotland's capital and over 12,000 worldwide.
Standard Life Group comprises of five main areas: Standard Life
Assurance Company, Standard Life Bank, Standard Life Investments,
Standard Life Healthcare, and Standard Life International.
Current assets under management exceed £908 billion. Standard Life
has in excess of seven million customers worldwide, with five million
in the UK. Of these, 2.6 million are with profits members of the
mutual.
On September 15, 2006, the company became a constituent of the FTSE
100 Index.
The Standard Life Assurance Company ("Standard Life") was
established in 1825 and the first Standard Life Assurance Company Act
was passed by Parliament in 1832. Standard Life was reincorporated as
a mutual assurance company in 1925.
The Standard Life group originally operated only through branches or
agencies of the mutual company in the United Kingdom and certain other
countries. Its Canadian branch was founded in 1833 and its Irish
operations in 1838. This largely remained the structure of the group
until 1996, when it opened a branch in Frankfurt, Germany with the aim
of exporting its UK life assurance and pensions operating model to
capitalise on the opportunities presented by EC Directive 92/96/EEC (the
“Third Life Directive”) and offer a product range in that market
with features which local providers were unable to offer. In the
1990s, the group also sought to diversify its operations into areas
which complemented its core life assurance and pensions business, with
the intention of positioning itself as a broad range financial
services provider.
On 31 May 2006, Standard Life's voting members voted in favour of the
Special Resolution for the demutualisation of The Standard Life
Assurance Company and the flotation of Standard Life plc on the London
Stock Exchange.
