Press Comment

There have been some articles in the Mail on Sunday recently speculating on consolidation within the Friendly Society sector, including reference to the merger we were pursuing with Police Mutual. Readers will have been left in no doubt that the paper is no fan of with-profit business in general, and friendly societies in particular.

The journalist concerned made no attempt to contact MPFS to check his facts. In particular, he appears to regard Police Mutual as the stronger Society. As our Joint Statement makes clear, "Both Societies remain financially strong and open for business as usual". We can only assume that the Mail on Sunday is confusing size with strength.

We would draw our members' attention to MPFS's record of distributing surplus capital to our members, including recently announced increases to our pay-outs next year. If financial strength were an issue for us, we could not and would not act in this way.