Merseyside Pension Fund in £200m buy-in with Aviva

The Merseyside Pension Fund has completed a £200m (€237m) bulk purchase annuity (BPA) scheme buy-in with Aviva.

The transaction was completed in June 2024 and secures the benefits of around 2,500 scheme members, attributable to Arriva Merseyside, in full.

Wirral Borough Council are the administering authority responsible for managing and administering the Merseyside Pension Fund. Mercer was the lead adviser on the transaction with input from Paul Middleman as the fund actuary. Legal advice was provided to the administering authority by Eversheds Sutherland.

The scheme said that when selecting an insurer, it placed a “strong” emphasis on ESG consideration and Aviva was able to demonstrate its commitment, both as a founding signatory to the Sustainability Principles Charter for BPA, and through its track record of taking action on climate change and social action, to help build stronger communities.

Peter Wallach, director of pensions at Wirral Borough Council, said: “We are delighted to have expanded our risk management strategy to achieve greater certainty of cost for the fund’s biggest non-public sector constituent employer, Arriva Merseyside, whilst simultaneously improving governance and reducing risk across the employer base with Aviva.”

He added: “This was a complicated project, and we thank Mercer and Eversheds Sutherland for the clarity, expertise and tenacity they brought in assisting us through the process to ensure compliance with public procurement legislation, and to obtain competitive pricing along with good contractual terms. Merseyside Pension Fund has now become a charter signatory.”

Earlier this year Aviva launched Aviva Clarity offering a streamlined process to support smaller schemes in derisking.

John Fothergill, senior deal manager at Aviva, said: “It’s pleasing that Aviva has now been recognised for tailoring its approach to adapt to the public sector procurement process. The administering authority made clear upfront the requirements to meet their ESG expectations and to be trusted to provide members’ benefits. This enabled us to efficiently deliver what they needed in order to proceed with Aviva.”

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