Abbey plans to retain James Hay, the UK’s largest provider of self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) , rather than sell it as part of Abbey’s life assurance operations.
Resolution, which is led by Clive Cowdery, is in exclusive talks with Santander, which owns Abbey, to acquire the bulk of Abbey’s life assurance operations, including its life funds that no longer write new policies.
But Abbey is understood to want to keep James Hay, which has £7bn of funds under administration and has sold about 35,000 Sipps.
References: Financial Times 13/05/06 page 19
