UK-based Equitable Life has decided to take legal action against 15 of its ex-directors, including former chief executives Christopher Headdon, Alan Nash and Roy Ranson, as well as several prominent non-executive directors.

All the directors sat on the Equitable board between 1993, when a decision was made to pay differential terminal bonuses to policyholders and 2000, when the House of Lords ruled that such differentiation was unlawful.