Helping members run their schemes, January 2025 Update

It is a pleasure to wish all our members a Happy New Year. We start with some ‘news just in’ as I write this - HM Treasury’s very welcome decision to maintain the pension scheme exemption from central clearing – not just for a year or two, but for the long-term.

This might not sound very exciting if you are not an investment specialist, but those who are will know that the issue that has been bubbling away for a decade or more, with the exemption extended by the EU for two years here and three years there. Now we have long-term confidence that the extra cost and complexity of central clearing will be avoided. It’s a significant ‘win’ for our members and a great reward for the work our Policy team has been doing on this with allies across the industry.

We will be making more policy submissions to the Government this week – this time on the Mansion House agenda. As you know from my many mentions of this last year, the question of how pension schemes can invest more in supporting the UK economy remains at the top of our Policy team’s work programme. The two consultations to which we will respond focus on DC and the LGPS, and there will be plenty more from us (and, no doubt, from the Government) on this agenda throughout the year.

The start of the year is a good time to ask you to look at our Events Calendar and put the dates of our key conferences in your diary. They are all open for booking: Investment Conference (Edinburgh, 11-13 March); Local Authority Conference (Bedfordshire, 16-18 June); and the Annual Conference (Manchester, 14-16 October).

More immediately, you have the opportunity to hear directly from the FCA about the Advice Guidance Boundary Review and their proposals for ‘targeted support’ to help savers make good decisions at retirement. This is the topic for our first Policy Insights Webinar of the year on 23 January.

Finally, I should remind you that it is time to pay your PLSA subscription, please. Thank you to those who have already done so. Please contact us on [email protected] with any queries.

As ever, your support for the PLSA is much appreciated and we look forward to working with you throughout 2025.