without prejudice, alleged breaches of Community law in relation to the collapse, to assess the UK regulatory regime in respect of Equitable Life, and to look at the adequacy of remedies available to policyholders including the 15,000 non-UK members. The 22-member committee heard evidence from 38 witnesses and analysed 92 public documents, and its report is the only one completely independent of UK Government influence. Whilst a detailed summary of the full document is well outside the scope of this article, an examination of the effectiveness of the supervision of Equitable is given below and closely follows the wording. Financial supervision covering the Assurance undertaking's entire business. The evidence suggests that the regulator focused exclusively on solvency margins, and took little or no account of accrued terminal bonuses in its overall analysis of the financial health of the company. It quotes Penrose as saying that the Policyholders' Reasonable Expectations (PRE) would have included terminal bonus even if the amount was not defined; however the Government Actuary's Department (GAD) and the Treasury deny PRE existed as the terminal bonus was not guaranteed. The report goes on to say that if it is considered that these types of bonuses are an integral part of the company's "entire business", the regulatory authorities should have taken them into account. Although the regulator was given the option of not forcing Equitable to build reserves for discretionary bonuses, that did not absolve the authorities from their duty of financial supervision covering the "assurance undertaking's entire business". Every insurance company is required to have sound administrative and accounting procedures and adequate internal control mechanisms. Though the Appointed Actuary (AA) is not a role required by the directive, it was an essential part of the UK's own system of insurance regulation. Inter alia, the AA was required to act as a guardian of policyholders' interests; but the overall evidence suggests that "the UK regulator did not fulfil its obligation ... in that Roy Ranson became CEO without relinquishing his role as the Appointed Actuary." The Treasury rejected this claim as the 3LD does not mention the AA. The overall evidence received suggested that by not taking swift action on this matter, the UK regulator did not fulfil its obligation to require from Equitable sound administrative and accounting procedures and adequate internal control mechanisms, as required explicitly. Ensure that the competent authorities have the powers and means necessary for