Standard Life’s £100m victory

Standard Life has won the latest round in a long-running legal battle with its insurers over the injection of more than £100 million into a controversial fund.

The Edinburgh-based life and pensions giant was fined £2.45m by the Financial Services Authority over “serious” failings with the marketing of its Pension Sterling Fund, which had been described as being “wholly invested in cash” but was mainly invested in floating rate notes – a type of bond – by July 2007.

It ploughed £102.7m into the fund in January 2009 to restore the value of investors’ savings, but its professional indemnity insurers refused to pay out. In February, a court ruled in favour of Standard Life but the insurers appealed. The Court of Appeal yesterday rejected that move, and the insurers now have 28 days to decide whether to appeal to the Supreme Court.