Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Conclusion 8
Seventh Report - Defined benefit pensions with Liability Driven Investments
Published 23 Jun 2023
Paragraph 91
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Defined benefit pensions with Liability Driven Investments All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
TPR encouraged pension scheme trustees to use leveraged LDI, which involves complex financial instruments. It continued to rely on them as the first line of defence to manage the risks, despite its longstanding concerns about governance standards in some schemes, particularly smaller ones which do not benefit from economies of scale. As the regulator, with responsibility for standards of governance in workplace pension schemes, TPR was the second line of defence. It issued guidance on managing the risks of LDI but was not able to monitor whether that was being followed. It should have focused earlier on the risks of encouraging trustees to use such complex financial products and worked with DWP to consider what further action was needed to mitigate the risk.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Seventh Report - Defined benefit pensions with Liability Driven Investments (HC 826), paragraph 91, 23 June 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 20 November 2023 (deadline 23 August 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government "welcomes the Committee's report" and sets out progress and proposals for future work on each recommendation, with some recommendations met through regulator monitoring and others left to later consideration.
- On investment consultants, the Government "welcomes" the recommendation to bring them within the FCA's regulatory perimeter, but commits only to take the Committee's views into account as it "assesses its next steps".
- On financial stability, the Government "accepts the FPC's recommendation" that TPR should incorporate financial stability considerations in its decision making and balance them with its objectives as a pensions regulator.
- On the Committee's call to halt the new funding regime, the Government does not say it will halt it. DWP plans to lay the draft regulations "in due course", accompanied by a full impact assessment.
- On disclosure requirements for LDI use, DWP "will consider, in light of TPR's findings, whether changes to disclosure requirements are appropriate". TPR's analysis of 2022 scheme data is to be produced "by the end of 2023".