Tracy Blackwell: The continued growth of the pension risk transfer market will be driven by the desire of the trustees of UK defined benefit pension schemes to secure their members’ benefits for the long term.
Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has released its results for the six months to 30 June 2025 – revealing £1.1bn of new business with eight schemes during the first half of the year.
The specialist insurer – which agreed to be acquired by Athora Holding in July for £5.7bn – said its deals in the first half included those with clients such as the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Baker Hughes.
PIC pointed towards the £4.3bn buy-in with the Rolls-Royce UK Pension Fund it announced in August and said in the year to the end of August 2025, it had completed a total of £5.5bn on new business.
PIC chief executive Tracy Blackwell commented on the results: "PIC had a good first half underpinned by our resilient balance sheet, careful approach to the asset markets, and continued investment in customer service."
PIC said it expected the overall pension risk transfer market to be worth between £40bn and £45bn in 2025.
Blackwell added: "The continued growth of the pension risk transfer market will be driven by the desire of the trustees of UK defined benefit pension schemes to secure their members' benefits for the long term.
"This growth will be supported by the capacity and capability of institutions like PIC to invest at scale in UK housing and infrastructure. PIC has developed deep expertise in both areas and will continue to be a leader in this market based on our simple purpose, paying the pensions of our current and future policyholders."
PIC said that, at 30 June, it insured some 399,200 pensions and made policyholder payments of £1.2bn during the first half of 2025.
The firm said its adjusted operating profit before tax was of £314m in the six months to 30 June, down from £326m in the same period last year. It announced an interim dividend payment of £160m.
It said it currently had assets under management of £51.5bn against insurance liabilities of £44.8bn and had a solvency capital ratio of 236%.
