Pressure is growing for a sweeping rethink of Britain’s pension fund regulation after the sector’s near-implosion wreaked havoc across financial markets and helped bring about a humiliating government retreat.
Pensions were caught on the hop by rapidly rising gilt rates after the government’s mini-budget last month, forcing them into a wave of asset sales. The Bank of England stepped in to contain what it saw as “fire sale dynamics” – an emergency measure that is already prompting questions about why a huge but hitherto sleepy corner of the financial sector could spiral in this way.
