Sales of pensions rise despite mis-selling fiasco

The tough line taken by the Government and Helen Liddell, the Economics Secretary to the Treasury, over the pensions mis-selling scandal seems to have had no impact on the business of the worst-offending companies, writes Richard Phillips.

Recent figures from the Association of British Insurers show pension sales rose by between 10 per cent and 12 per cent for a variety of pension products in the third quarter of 1997, against the same period in 1996.

A Treasury official said Mrs Liddell remained committed to "keeping the pressure on individual companies." Mrs Liddell pointed out last week that it was noticeable that where companies had devoted money and senior management time to address the mis-selling of pensions progress had been made.

The healthier market for pensions products since the Government came to power in May contrasts with the dark days of 1994 and 1995, when pension sales fell precipitously. This was due to greater uncertainty about long- term employment pros-pects at the tail end of the recession as well as the emerging mis-selling scandal.