UK – UK general insurance giant Allianz Cornhill has appointed Aon Consulting as administrator of its £438m (€631m) closed defined benefit pension fund.

The appointment followed an earlier decision by Allianz Cornhill and its scheme trustees to outsource the administration of the fund.

A spokesperson for the fund told IPE the decision to outsource was based on “essentially risk and resource issues with a small administration team in light of recent substantial pensions legislation and additional compliance issues.

“It was considered that a TPA (third party administrator) was better-suited or equipped to deal with ongoing administration.”

The 7,000-member DB scheme was closed to new members from 1 April 2001. Existing members continue to accrue future service benefits.

“We chose Aon from a comprehensive beauty parade which involved most of the major TPA players,” according to a statement.

Meanwhile, IPE has discovered that Allianz Cornhill’s pensions operations manager, Colm Deasy, has resigned.

According to the spokesperson, he left the pension fund at the end of June.

“The position is about to be filled,” he said, adding that no further details could be given because Deasy’s successor’s details have yet to be confirmed.