News

A confusing section of the Pensions Bill, which dictates how different employees are treated under auto-enrolment, must be changed before it becomes law, Aon Hewitt warns.

Expecting administrators and trustees to operate a five-day turnaround for transfer value cheques is "totally unrealistic" in many cases, a consultant says.

Making further, deeper changes to public sector pensions is the only way they will ever be fair to taxpayers, Charles Cowling says.

Pension funds' reaction to last week's market turbulence show governance standards have improved since the 2008 market crash, with many schemes moving to re-risk their portfolios, according to market experts.

A £650m government loan facility for the National Employment Savings Trust will be "unrecoverable" as the agreement allows the terms of the loan to be renegotiated, a lawyer says.

Section 75 changes have failed to simplify the existing rules and merely added more complexity to employer debt rules, industry figures say.

US - The ETF market reached $1.4trn at the end of the first half as ETF growth continued, according to BlackRock's Industry Review H1 2011.

GLOBAL - Asian shares rose for a third day but closed lower than expected as European leaders failed to reveal specific plans to tackle the debt crisis after a meeting yesterday.

UK - Recent market turmoil could force companies to pay significantly higher contributions or increase the length of deficit repayment periods, Towers Watson warns.

US - The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board has reaped second quarter returns of 1.2%, outlined commitments worth $675m made in Q2 and provided details of search activity going forward.