UK – International Financial Services London (IFSL), the UK cross-sector organisation for the promotion of UK financial services overseas, has set up a pension group consisting of 15 of its members with an interest in the international pensions market, in a bid to co-ordinate the promotion of UK expertise in the field.

The ISFL Pension Group draws members from the fund management, legal, trade associations, banking, securities and insurance sectors. Its remit will be to form a coherent strategy for promoting pension provision overseas, as well as providing advice on priority pension markets.

Core markets already identified by the group for review include China, Czech Republic, India and Italy.

Iain Batty, a partner with law firm CFS Cameron McKenna and chairman of the IFSL Pension Group, comments: “The international pension fund market is currently worth over $13trn. Given the moves to reform pension systems worldwide, IFSL has a major opportunity to co-ordinate the promotion of the wide-ranging UK expertise in this area.
“There are many countries seeking advice and direction in the establishment of funded pension arrangements and we are currently looking at organising pensions seminars in China, Turkey and Romania.”

The IFSL says it will produce a brochure on the area of pensions in Spring 2002.