The London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA) has won a four-year contract from the Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service to administer its pension schemes and payroll.

Under the deal, the LPFA said it would provide full pension administration and payroll services to around 1,000 active and retired firefighters and their families for the next four years.

The authority said it had been chosen because of its skill in delivering Fire Fighter Pension Schemes, as well as the fact it had almost 15 years of experience administering pensions for fire fighters.

The contract will cover full pension administration and payroll services for both new and old fire fighter schemes.

It will also include secure employer and member portals, workflow management and communications services, the authority said.

Meanwhile, private bank Berenberg has been appointed by Aerion Fund Management – which manages the National Grid UK pension fund – to manage a £3.5bn (€4.26bn) active currency overlay mandate.

Aerion said it chose Berenberg to manage the underlying currency exposure of the pension fund’s overseas investments because of the bank’s risk-orientated and rule-based process.

Tindaro Siragusano, head of asset management at Berenberg, said the currency overlay programme covered both developed and emerging market currencies, and had the potential to increase sterling returns generated by the fund’s overseas holdings. 

Against a 50% hedged benchmark, Berenberg aims to open the hedge when the overseas currency is appreciating against sterling and increase the hedge when currencies depreciate, he said.