UK - The Church of England (CofE) has passed a motion to extend the backdating of pension benefits to surviving civil partners of clergy scheme members, despite already holding a £352m (€405m) deficit.

Elsewhere, Rolls Royce reported its deficit has increased slightly to £855m, Lothian Pension Fund is seeking a provider of claims filing services for class actions, Clwyd has appointed an absolute returns manager and Marine Harvest has awarded a pension admin, actuarial and consultancy contract.

At a meeting last night, the General Synod of the CofEapproved a motion to request the Archbishops’ Council and the CofE Pensions Board “bring forward changes to the rules governing the clergy pension scheme, in order to go beyond the requirements of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and provide for pension benefits to be paid to the surviving civil partners of deceased clergy on the same basis as they are currently paid to surviving spouses.”

Presenting the motion, Reverend Mark Bratton claimed the issue was one of inequality as currently the law only backdates pension benefits for civil partner survivors in relation to pensionable service accrued after 5 December 2005 - when the Civil Partnership legislation came into force.

The motion was supported by a reasonable majority of the Synod following a division of the houses - Bishops, Clergy and Laity - despite an admission by Bratton in a background report that the change would result in a “real, though supportable, cost to the pension in the long-term”.

He noted that extending rights would not have an immediate impact on the contribution rate. However, the scheme posted a £352m deficit at the end of 2008 and in June 2009 the CofE Pensions Board issued a consultation on potential changes to the Funded Clergy Pension Scheme which could lead to the switching to a defined contribution (DC) scheme or the introduction of a hybrid plan. (See earlier IPE article: CofE consults on pension changes as deficit hits £352m)

The CofE Pensions Board and the Church Commissioners for England meanwhile confirmed they had sold their shares in Vedanta Resources on the advice of the Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG). The Board and the Church Commissioners for England had previously invested £3.8m in the company.

John Reynolds, EIAG chairman, said it had advised divestment because: “After six months of engagement, we are not satisfied that Vedanta has shown, or is likely in future to show, the level of respect for human rights and local communities that we expect of companies in whom the Church investing bodies hold shares.”

Elsewhere, figures from Rolls Royce Group’s 2009 preliminary results showed “a modest deterioration in the net deficit to £855m” in the group’s pension schemes in an IAS19 basis.

The company attributed this primarily to a “return to more normal levels of the benchmark AA corporate discount rate upon which this valuation is based”. However, it claimed the results of the latest triennial valuation of the group’s largest UK scheme - representing two-thirds of the pension liabilities - revealed no need to change the funding requirements in 2010.

Rolls Royce stated: “This demonstrates the benefits of the early action taken to amend the terms of the scheme and to adopt an investment strategy that reduces volatility.” Figures from the results revealed at the end of 2009 the combined deficit of the UK schemes reached £380m, while overseas schemes reported a deficit of £475m.

The £2.6bn Lothian Pension Fundis seeking a provider of claims filing services for non-US shareholder securities fraud class actions on behalf of the pension scheme.

Lothian has already been involved in a number of class action cases, even serving as lead plaintiff in a case against Vodafone. However increasingly non-US shareholders are being excluded from class actions in the US on grounds of jurisdiction. (See earlier IPE articles: Vodafone class action reopened on appeal and European investors excluded from US class action)

The pension scheme, overseen by Edinburgh City Council, is offering a four-year contract, and the closing date for submissions is 12 March 2010.

Flintshire County Councilhas appointed Liongate Capital Management to run a £20m fund of hedge fund/multi strategy hedge fund portfolio on behalf of the Clwyd pension fund.

In December, it was confirmed Clwyd had awarded a £20m absolute return mandate to State Street Global Advisers (SSgA) through its SSARIS Multi-Manager Absolute Return Strategy. However, a contract notice issued on the European Tender database this week revealed Liongate had been appointed alongside SSgA to run a similar mandate. (See earlier IPE article: SSgA wins Clwyd absolute return mandate)

And trustees of the Marine Harvest Pension Scheme have appointed Xafinity Consulting and Xafinity Paymaster to provide pension administration, actuarial and consultancy services from February 2010.

Xafinity has been awarded an open-ended contract, replacing Towers Watson who previously held the role.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Nyree Stewart on + 44 (0)20 7261 4618 or email nyree.stewart@ipe.com

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