Pensions - Articles - PLSA comments on Productive Finance Working Group report

 Richard Butcher, Chair, PLSA, said: “We support the Government’s ambition to ensure pension funds have the opportunity to invest in the widest range of assets to deliver good outcomes for savers. The work and recommendations of the Productive Finance Group will provide an important launch pad from which we can seek to resolve the detailed operational and systemic barriers that inhibit pension funds who wish to invest in productive finance and illiquid assets. If we can succeed in this ambition, there is a real opportunity for a win-win here: an alignment of the national interest with the interest of pension fund savers.

 “It is always important to recognise, though, that the UK pensions sector, which looks after over £2trn of assets on behalf of tens of millions of savers is not homogenous. Each fund will, by law, have its own prudently managed well diversified investment strategy and an approach designed to suit its members particular needs. And above all else, trustees’ primary duty is to look after the saver first.”