Two disused pit head wheels in Northumberland. The deal will see BlackRock manage the investments on behalf of the BCSSS
The British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) has appointed BlackRock as fiduciary manager.
The scheme – which serves approximately 39,000 members – said BlackRock will manage the fund's investments within clear parameters set and overseen by the trustees, who retain full control of investment strategy and risk.
The appointment follows a competitive selection process.
BCSSS trustee board chair Cheryl Agius said: "The trustees are delighted to appoint BlackRock as the scheme's fiduciary manager and look forward to working closely with the team.
"As the scheme continues to mature, the trustees have reviewed its investment needs to ensure it remains well positioned to deliver the long-term objectives. BlackRock's global investment expertise, scale and experience working with some of the UK's largest pension schemes make it well placed to support the scheme now and in the future."
Agius added: "Our priority remains protecting members' benefits and ensuring the scheme continues to be managed in the best possible way with their interests in mind."
BlackRock head of UK and Europe client business Sarah Melvin said: "Working closely with the trustees, our focus will be on supporting the long-term security, stability and reliability of members' retirement income over the years ahead. We are honoured and excited to bring our investment and retirement expertise to support the Scheme and its many thousands of individual pensioners across the UK."
The scheme said members' benefits and pension payments are not changing as a result of this deal and will continue to be paid as they are today. It said the government guarantee remains in place and is unaffected.
BlackRock currently manages over £300bn in outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) and fiduciary management assets worldwide.
The deal is the lates in a line of significant outsourcing deals for UK schemes.
In April, the trustees of the Wellcome Trust Pension Plan and the Genome Research Limited Pension Plan appointed L&G's asset management business for OCIO briefs to oversee £800m of assets on behalf of more than 3,500 members.
In February, The £2.97bn E.ON UK Group of the Electricity Supply Pension Scheme appointed Schroders Solutions as its principal investment manager under a full OCIO mandate.
This appointment, which was funded in 2025, follows a string of mandate wins for Schroders Solutions over the past years – including a £740m fiduciary management mandate from the Aga Rangemaster Group Pension Scheme last March; a £10bn OCIO mandate from the trustees of Centrica's pension schemes in April 2022; and an OCIO deal to manage the benefits of the closed Tesco Defined Benefit Pension Scheme in February 2024.
In September last year, Goldman Sachs Asset Management was appointed by various pension entities and a captive insurance company related to Shell and its subsidiaries to manage a $40bn (£29bn) OCIO brief. This followed the win of a £23bn brief for the trustees of the BAE Systems Pension Scheme and BAE Systems Executive Pension Scheme in 2023.
