June 2020
17Jun

UK. Sustainable Investment And The Race to Zero Emissions During The Covid-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) threw the world's health, economic and financial systems into disarray, but the pandemic did little to distract the U.K. from the climate crisis. A recent survey by Ipsos shows two-thirds of Britons consider climate change to be as serious as the pandemic, and the majority support a green economic recovery. Their voices are not unheard, since leaders at all levels of society are strategizing ways to "build back better" for our planet. The UN's...

June 17, 2020
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17Jun

UK. Pensions triple lock at risk from Covid-19 fallout

Rishi Sunak is preparing to break the Conservative party’s “triple lock” state pension pledge, amid Treasury fears that the policy could soon become unaffordable because of the fallout from the coronavirus crisis. The UK chancellor’s willingness to break a 2019 Tory manifesto commitment is a sign of how the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing the government to confront political taboos. Mr Sunak has been warned that unless he breaks the pledge next year, the value of the state pension could...

June 17, 2020
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12Jun

UK Pension Market Report 2020

By Research and Markets In 2019, UK pension funds received total contributions of £241 billion, representing a 10% rise over the level of 2018. In 2019, contributions to workplace pensions represented 70% of total contributions and this is expected to rise to 71% in 2020. In 2019, the publisher estimates that 2.4 million new pension products were sold to members of the public. In 2019, just over 21 million employees in the UK had a workplace pension with most of...

June 12, 2020
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11Jun

UK. Workplace pension income rises by more than a third

Income from workplace pensions in the UK has risen by more than a third in just 10 years, analysis by financial services firm Equiniti has revealed. The findings show that average occupational pension income rose from £121 to £167 a week between 2008/09 and 2018/19, representing an increase of 38%. This is despite other sources of income remaining broadly flat or negative, with occupational pensions now accounting for 30% of total average pensioner income, up from 24% in 2008/09. ...

June 11, 2020
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10Jun

U.K. deficits rise as coronavirus continues to hit markets

The total deficit of U.K. defined benefit funds covered by the Pension Protection Fund's 7800 index worsened 37% in May to £176.3 billion ($217.6 billion). The deficit was £128.5 billion as of April 30. The deficit of U.K. defined benefit funds also deteriorated over the year ended May 31, from £38.1 billion as of May 31, 2019, London-based PPF said Tuesday in an update. Read also UK. Regulator repeats anti-scam warning as £5m lost to fraud The funding ratio of...

June 10, 2020
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08Jun

UK. Regulator repeats anti-scam warning as £5m lost to fraud

The Pensions Regulator has repeated its warning about scams after a report showed more than £5m has been lost to fraud since February. According to research carried out by Action Fraud the number of fraud cases total more than 2,100 in the past five months, with losses to fraudulent activity amounting to £5,142,265. Pension scams were amongst the most common type of fraud with fraudsters tricking victims into transferring their pension pots to criminals or releasing funds. Commenting on...

June 8, 2020
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04Jun

UK. Covid-19: pension scheme guidance

The new guide is relevant to private sector occupational defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) trust-based pension schemes in the UK, including hybrid schemes and DC master trusts, applying the pensions SORP. It covers a wide range of topics including responsibilities for reporting to The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the impact of the pandemic on the control environment of pension schemes. There is no relaxation of trustees’ responsibilities under the notifiable events regime and those running DC master...

June 4, 2020
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May 2020
29May

Transaction costs make up 37% of UK pension investment costs: CACEIS

Transaction costs make up an average of 37 per cent of the total costs relating to pension scheme investments, data from CACEIS has revealed. This makes transaction costs the second largest outlay in scheme investments, after management costs which make up 42 per cent of total investment costs. The proportion of investment expenses made up by transaction costs has increased from CACEIS’ previously reported figure of 25 per cent. CACEIS said this is in part due to new methodology...

May 29, 2020
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28May

The Game of Pension Risk Transfers Continues

fsi Many employers with defined benefit pension plans would love to put responsibility for the plans in the hands of a life insurer, by buying a large group annuity contract. Predictions about how the current COVID-19, stock price and interest rate turmoil will affect the market for pension risk transfer annuities are… highly diverse. The life insurers in the market say demand is strong. Analysts at Moody’s Investors Service say big pension risk transfer units could help buffer...

May 28, 2020
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25May

U.K.’s Largest Pension Fund Urges Total to Clamp Down on CO2

The U.K.’s biggest pension fund said it will back a climate resolution asking for France’s Total SA to adopt a tougher stance on climate change at its annual shareholder meeting next week. The resolution was brought by 11 European asset managers last month, in another example of investors pressuring Big Oil to tackle environmental challenges. Since then, Total has set out bold commitments to eliminate most of its emissions by 2050, joining others such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc...

May 25, 2020
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