Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

UK Pension Schemes Bill: AIC seeks amendment to include investment companies in any DC private asset mandate; warns on LTAFs' liquidity; Bank of England opposes mandating

Published on: 29 July 2025

Published by a Law360 reporter

Legal News

Article summary

As it stands, the Pension Schemes Bill creates a new ‘reserve power’ enabling the government to require defined contribution (DC) pension schemes to place a share of their assets into UK private markets. Yet, compliance could not be achieved by allocating to investment companies that themselves hold such assets, according to Richard Stone, Chief Executive of the AIC, in a letter of 22 July 2025 to Torsten Bell, Minister for Pensions at HM Treasury. DC pensions, spanning stakeholder pensions and most workplace arrangements, tie members’ outcomes to the investment performance of their contributions. Steering their future allocations towards private assets forms part of the government’s strategy to boost UK growth. Stone said the omission of investment companies from the Bill is unfair and indefensible, arguing that the reserve powers, as drafted, are seriously deficient. He added that they bar the use of investment companies — listed, closed-ended funds — as a route to obtain exposure to private assets for savers...

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