The Chancellor of the Exchequer used her recent Mansion House speech to reassure City grandees that the government was moving ahead with plans to consolidate local government pension schemes. The creation of eight “megafunds” in the UK is an attempt to replicate the kind of pooling that has proved successful for defined-contribution (DC) pension arrangements in countries such as Australia and Canada.
High time, some might add, particularly given the UK has the second-largest pool of pension assets in the world, but it’s difficult to appraise what impact any consolidation might have until the impact of proposed reforms to listing regulations becomes clearer.
The hope is that the consolidated funds will increase their relative exposure to UK equities, particularly domestic start-ups, although that would probably necessitate improved access to companies at the pre-IPO stage. One imagines that regulators would bend over backwards to ensure that the new pensions cohort increases the focus on domestic equities.