Standard Life plc, which recently announced the sale of its Canadian division to Manulife, is considering moving some of its business to England if the Scottish people vote in favour of independence next week.
The Edinburgh, Scotland-based company has put in place precautionary measures that would help enable it to provide customers with continuity.
“This includes planning for new regulated companies in England to which we could transfer parts of our business if there was a need to do so,” says chief executive David Nish.
This transfer of the business could potentially include pensions, investments and other long-term savings held by customers in the United Kingdom.
Standard Life says it will continue to serve its customers in Scotland and will consider what additional measures it may need to take on their behalf as a consequence of constitutional change once further clarity and certainty is received.
If there were to be a vote for independence it’s estimated that it would be at least 18 months before Scotland could become a separate country from the U.K.
“Standard Life has a long history in Scotland—a heritage of which we are very proud—and we hope that this continues,” he explains, “but our responsibility is to protect the interests of our customers, our shareholders, our people and other stakeholders in our business.”
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