Governance

Contract-based governance committees will have powers to request action and refer non-compliance to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) says.

L&G’s Adrian Boulding explains the direction of travel for DC standards

Around eight in ten pension professionals believe good scheme governance cuts long-term costs, despite governance practices themselves becoming more expensive, according to a report from eShare.

Fewer than one in four major employers say their scheme has a specific ‘decumulation strategy' in place to help retirees get the best annuity, research finds.

The Pensions Regulator's (TPR) defined contribution (DC) code of conduct has created a "paradigm shift" in trustee knowledge requirements and leaves them far more open to criticism, industry experts claim.

More than half of trustees (56%) believe current governance structures prevent them from quickly taking advantage of market conditions to improve their funding level, according to research.

Just three out of ten contributors said trustees always performed the necessary due diligence before signing anything off, although two thirds said this was the case always or most of the time.

Pensions Buzz respondents have thrown their respective bulk behind calls for an extra layer of governance in contract-based schemes.

A requirement for all contract-based schemes to have employer-level governance committees would need Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) action on insurer transparency, Pan Group founder Andrew Cheeseman says.

The government has committed to exploring ways of improving governance in contract-based defined contribution (DC) schemes, including forming multi-scheme member committees.