The Chartered Insurance Institute is to appoint a majority of directors to the Personal Finance Society (PFS) Board, with three Institute Directors joining the Board with immediate effect.
The move, the CII said, comes after the failure of independent mediation attempts. The PFS is a subsidiary of the CII Group, and the PFS’ articles of association give the CII Group Board the right to equalise and/or appoint a majority of directors to the PFS Board.
Helen Phillips, CII Group Chair, said: “This is not an outcome the CII Group Board wanted or pursued. The CII team has worked hard for many months, initiating independent mediation, and responding to the PFS Board’s demands diligently, professionally and with immense goodwill.
“Therefore, it is deeply disappointing that independent mediation has failed, and serious and significant governance failures have arisen, which leave the CII Group Board with no alternative but to take this action at this juncture and resolve matters without further delay.”
The PFS Board is currently made up of five PFS Member Directors and two Institute Directors. The CII has appointed three further Institute Directors, who together will equalise the PFS Board with immediate effect.
The CII added that to “guarantee the highest standards of governance and in accordance with the PFS’ articles of association”, after a 30-day consultation period has elapsed it intends to form a majority by appointing a further Institute Director to the PFS Board.
Responding to the situation, PFS President Caroline Stuart said: “The decision by the CII Board, which was announced to our Board, the membership and the wider insurance and personal finance communities this morning, came as a huge shock. Having not informed our Board of its intentions, the CII has acted unilaterally and without PFS leadership or member consent. We will take the right steps available to us to consult PFS members as to their views on if such a move by the CII is in PFS members’ and the PFS’s best interests.”
Sarah Lord, who was President of the Personal Finance Society from 2020 to 2022, called the move “deeply cynical”. She said: “The orchestration of the announcement that we have witnessed today shows that this is a pre-meditated decision. I have until very recently been in conversations with the CII leadership and we have engaged in mediation at their request. The conversations were still underway.
“It is extraordinary that they have been so disingenuous. Acting in this way today, and in such an aggressive way, is likely designed to diminish the existing PFS Boards powers and undermine its forward-looking strategy. I will do all I can over the coming weeks to ensure the Personal Finance Society, its members and the professions interests are protected.”
The CII announced that the new PFS Board Institute Directors, appointed on 21 December, are: Sarah Howe, Neil Watts and Azlina Bulmer.
Howe is former CEO of Harpenden Building Society, former Independent Chair of the Consumer Panel at Openwork, one of the UK’s largest financial advice networks, and recently appointed to St Clare Hospice board.
Watts is former Board Member of the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual), former Board Member of the Architects’ Registration Board (ARB) and former Advisory Board Member for Cifas, as well as former Complaints Committee Member at the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO)
While Bulmer is former Director of International at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), current Associate Non-Executive Director at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, and existing CII Membership and Engagement Director.
Picture: left-to-right: Neil Watts, Sarah Howe, Azlina Bulmer
