Alan Nash, Equitable Life's chief executive, has resigned following the UK mutual's decision to close its doors to new business having failed to find a buyer.

The moves were forced by the failure of Equitable to clinch a deal with Prudential, the UK's second largest insurer. Equitable put itself up for sale in July after losing a legal battle in the House of Lords and being forced to meet full bonus payment obligations of £1.5bn (€2.44bn). Prudential, which said on Friday that it had ended talks to buy Equitable, was the last in a long line of potential bidders, which included CGNU, the UK insurer, and Eureko, the European financial services consortium.