UK DC pension schemes and the ‘productive’ finance debate

Successive UK governments have looked to the UK pension sector to do more to promote domestic economic growth.

Schemes are being encouraged to support ‘productive finance’ initiatives, such as providing equity capital and finance for start-up and scaling UK businesses, domestic infrastructure projects, affordable housing and promoting longer-term and more illiquid investments. The UK pension sector is often compared unfavourably by ministers with the systems in countries such as Australia and Canada, where allocations to this type of investment tend to be higher.

In this webinar we will discuss a new joint paper by Frontier Economics and LCP which considers:

• Why pension schemes in other countries may invest differently from those in the UK and whether comparisons with Australia’s pension investment strategies are meaningful, given the significant differences between the two systems
• What initiatives the UK government is taking to promote ‘productive finance’ and how to evaluate which ones are likely to have most impact
• What is happening in the market, both in terms of progress on voluntary commitments on private market investments, and the supply of assets which work for schemes and policymakers alike.