Sir Keith Mills intensifies his bitter battle with Coutts
SIR Keith Mills, the founder of the Air Miles and Nectar loyalty programmes, is today launching an advertising campaign alleging Coutts gave him faulty advice to deposit £65m of his savings in an AIG fund. AIG later ran into severe trouble, forcing the US government to bail it out. On 15 September AIG suspended the enhanced fund in which Mills invested. Half the money was returned – but Mills is calling on Coutts to guarantee that it will step in with compensation if AIG doesn’t return the remainder of the money in 2012, as promised.
Last night Coutts hit back. A spokesman said: “Our clients in the Recovery Fund do not stand to lose any money. The value of the remaining assets in the fund are continuing to grow and are expected to return their full value by July 2012. Additionally, AIG has set aside assets to provide a guarantee to cover any shortfalls in the fund at July 2012. For those clients who require liquidity, Coutts has made available a loan to the full value of their investment.”
“We were certainly recommending AIG up to the period of Autumn last year. We weren’t telling people to get out of it. But it was sold as a low risk, not no risk, product.”