May 2023

UK. British Steel forges $3.4 billion buy-in to fully insure plan

British Steel Pension Scheme, Glasgow, Scotland, insured £2.7 billion ($3.4 billion) in liabilities through a buy-in with Legal & General Assurance Society, securing a buyout, according to a news release. The latest deal, which was the plan's fourth risk transfer deal since November 2021, covered the remaining 40% of liabilities and the benefits of all 67,000 plan participants. In 2017, the British Steel Pension Scheme was restructured after its plan sponsor, Tata Steel U.K., experienced financial difficulty. "Since the new scheme was...

UK. Pensions industry set for ‘fraud crisis’

Greater accessibility to retirement savings could leave Brits ‘highly vulnerable to a wide-scale wave of scams’ The pensions sector is facing a looming fraud crisis that could see millions of pensioners scammed out of their life savings, according to a report from LexisNexis Risk Solutions The Digital Pension Fraud: a looming crisis awaits report found that industry experts fear greater accessibility to draw down cash from retirement savings as digital pension services come online will leave pension holders highly vulnerable to...

UK. Improving financial security in retirement

How much to put aside for retirement is one of those issues that many working age people do not like to think about very much. With the last seven years dominated by Brexit, dealing with a pandemic and recovery from it, supporting households and businesses with energy bills and the cost of living crisis, it is also fair to say retirement saving has not been front and centre in the mind of policymakers either. While there was a lot of policy...

UK Pensions Regulator refreshes its guidance for trustees on being prepared for sponsor distress

The UK Pensions Regulator has updated and re-issued its guidance for trustees of defined benefit pension schemes, urging them to be prepared for signs of sponsor distress. If trustees are ready to take protective action at an early stage, more options will potentially be available to them, which should maximise their ability to protect members’ interests. The guidance was first issued during the Covid-19 pandemic in November 2020, and we previously reported on it here. The revised version appropriately moves...

Workplace sidecar saving in action

By Annick Kuipers, Jo Phillips, Will Sandbrook & Emma Stockdale As a concept, sidecar saving is designed to work with human cognitive and behavioural biases, by sequencing people’s saving to boost their financial resilience – by first, in the short term, building liquid savings, and then, for retirement, increasing contributions to pension saving. We knew immediately that this idea had the potential to address two of the biggest financial challenges for low- to moderateincome households in the UK: 1) not...

UK MPs urge minister to do more to free Hongkongers’ trapped savings

The first British ministerial visit to Hong Kong since the introduction of draconian Chinese security laws five years ago was a chance to demand that China unlock more than £2bn in pensions belonging to British overseas passport holders who fled for the UK, former cabinet ministers have told the Foreign Office. A letter signed by more than 90 MPs, including 10 former ministers, urges the trade minister Dominic Johnson to do more to release frozen savings belonging to thousands of...

UK. Church of England fund to vote against Shell chair over climate concerns

The Church of England Pension Board said on Tuesday it would vote against Shell's (SHEL.L) chair and directors at its upcoming annual meeting over "signals" the energy giant could revise commitments to fight climate change. Proxy adviser PIRC also recommended investors vote against the energy company's chair and oppose its annual report for "failing to address climate risks by setting adequate targets". Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan, who took office in January, said in March that Shell was reviewing its plan...

U.K. Pension funds plan more infrastructure investments

A majority of U.K. pension funds (62%) expect to increase investment in British infrastructure over the next 12 months and prioritize it over overseas markets, according to a survey conducted for alternative investment fund GLIL Infrastructure. GLIL is a partnership of U.K. pension funds managed by Local Pensions Partnership Investments. The survey of executives at 300 pension funds, including private and local government funds, was conducted by Censuswide for GLIL Infrastructure in February. It found that for 36% of respondents, the...

Pension Law and Social Responsibility in the UK: ESG Investing for Pensions

Trustees of pension schemes have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the scheme's beneficiaries. This includes making investment decisions that will provide adequate returns to fund the pension promises made to scheme members. However, as the world becomes more conscious of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, there is increasing pressure on trustees to consider the impact of their investments on society and the planet. What is ESG Investing? ESG investing is an investment approach that considers...

UK. Capita: Watchdog warns pension funds over data after hack

Hundreds of pension funds have been asked to check whether data was stolen by cybercriminals during a major hack of the UK's largest outsourcer. The Pensions Regulator has asked trustees responsible for funds that use Capita as an administrator to assess whether clients' data is at risk. After the hack in March, information apparently containing Capita data began to circulate on the dark web. The pensions watchdog said on Sunday that it had written to the hundreds of pension funds that employ...