§ Mr. Stanleyasked the Secretary of State for Trade what rôle is being played by his Department in obtaining settlement for the creditors of Nation Life Insurance; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Clinton DavisThe affairs of the company are in the hands of a liquidator appointed by the court. It is his duty, subject to the law and to any directions given to him by the court, to realise the assets of the company, to determine the individual claims of the many thousands of creditors and then to make such payments to them in proportion to their claims as may prove possible from realisation of the assets.
I understand that the liquidator will be seeking further directions from the court on how claims of some policyholders should be assessed under the law. For this purpose he has taken the advice of counsel, particularly in relation to the basis on which the claims of holders of property bonds and of equity-linked bonds should be assessed and to the rate—or rates—of interest which should be used m discounting back to the date of the winding-up the value of the cash benefits assured under policies. It may, however, take some time to resolve the difficult issues. These arise partly because Nation Life has been issuing types of policy which did not exist and nobody envisaged when the relevant statutory provisions governing the liquidation of insurance companies were enacted.
My Department has been, and remains, in close consultation with the liquidator because of my concern for policy holders. While I cannot speculate on when creditors will receive any payment or on how much they will ultimately receive, there are substantial assets of the company which will be available for creditors, of whom policyholders are by far the most significant.