5^th June , 2001

Mr. Vanni Treves
Chairman
The Equitable Life (By E mail, fax and post)

Dear Mr. Treves,

A reminder: Liquidation evaluation

On March 9^th you met with EMAG. The first topic was our criticism of the poor quality and inadequacy of information on the ELAS website about the Halifax deal versus alternatives.

I told you that the liquidation option had first been raised by EPHAG with the FSA on Jan 4^th and the request for a comparative evaluation was made by EMAG to Charles Thomson, in the presence of James Crosby, on Feb 9^th. You undertook to have a quantification put on the website and apparently you reiterated that to the Leeds roadshow on March 17^th.

Recently, Vincent received a letter from Charles dated 15^th May, which included: "I am extremely reluctant to spend any more time on revisiting the past?." We trust that the above undertaking will, however, be fulfilled. Not least because liquidation is always the long-stop last option against which alternatives must be shown to have incremental benefit. Rationally, it should therefore be included in the information pack in the compromise proposal.

The same letter commented that: "We have received hardly any comments on the information about the Halifax deal that we have published on the website." We hope that this will not be used as a rationale for non-publication of such vital-to-the-Society data?

We were concerned to learn at the AGM that further payments from Halifax are predicated on compromise being achieved by March 2002. Current trends in interest and annuity rates make this timing particularly difficult. Nowhere has this deadline been declared before. We wonder what other material elements of the contract may not yet have been made public?

Congratulations on " carrying off" so well what was one of the most awkward AGMs of modern times.
Yours sincerely,

Paul Braithwaite
Deputy chairman of the Equitable Members' Action Group (EMAG)

Tel: 07973 537 480 Fax: 020 7916 2896