BACB pension scheme transacts first open-tendered underwritten buy-in

The British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB) Pension Scheme has entered into a £12m (€14.5m) insurance contract with Partnership, in the UK’s first tendered medically underwritten buy-in.

The £12m deal covered all non-insured pensioners in the £60m scheme and was arranged via a third-party information collector.

MorganAsh collected the medical information from the scheme’s members via a questionnaire. It then passed on the results to all interested insurers to formulate their bids.

Insurers responded to the tender based on the identical medical information, resulting in a more competitive price for the trustees to transact.

This differed from the process seen thus far, where deals are completed after a pension scheme selects an insurer upfront.

JLT Employee Benefits (EB) had worked with insurers and MorganAsh to develop the process for its clients.

Graham Wardle of BESTrustees, who chairs the BACB scheme, said the board received a 95% response rate from members, allowing the trustees to obtain an accurate price for the exercise.

“We were able to achieve a competitive price by selecting Partnership Assurance, and we are pleased with how streamlined the process was,” he said.

“The continual de-risking of our pension scheme is an important goal and ensures the long-term security for our members.”

Buyout consultant at JLT EB, David Barratt, said the new process designed by the consultant could be important for schemes looking for effective and efficient de-risking.

“We are continually looking to improve efficiencies for our clients and are delighted to have brought this new process to the market,” he said.

Partnership Assurance director of corporate partnerships, Will Hale, said the tendered deal represented a landmark in the underwritten bulk annuity market.

“We were happy to support JLT Employee Benefits develop this new market process,” he said.

“A common approach to the collection of member information will ensure schemes wishing to de-risk through a choice of insurers, and they can be confident of attaining a competitive price.”