UK – Trustees feel “hindered” by regularly changing legislation, according to a survey of UK trustees conducted by MetLife Assurance.

According to the survey, there was also a sharp divide between those who found regulation helpful – with one in five trustees for schemes under £250m (€312m) saying this was the case – compared with more than half of trustees overseeing schemes of more than £250m claiming changing legislation proved an obstacle to performing duties.

MetLife chief executive Wayne Daniel the fact trustees of larger schemes worried about being able to perform their duties could hinder their efforts to find “appropriate de-risking strategies that fit the unique needs of their scheme”.

De-risking has become a greater priority for 18% of trustees, whereas nearly two-thirds of respondents said implementing such strategies remained as important as it had a year ago.

This was almost a reversal of last year’s survey, where 64% of trustees said de-risking was a greater priority.

Daniel added that there was an “evident lack of knowledge” on the part of trustees about how to prepare for de-risking exercises.

In other news, the Pension Protection Fund has reported a slight improvement in the aggregate funding of the country’s defined benefit (DB) funds.

According to latest figures for the end of October, the deficit reported in the PPF Index 7800 fell by £1.8bn to £227.3bn, equal to a funding ratio of 82.4%.

Funding was down year on year, but the PPF’s figures noted that liabilities had risen by 10.7% since October last year, whereas scheme assets had only increased by 7% over the same period.

Finally, the Pensions Regulator has argued that its activities are largely seen in a positive light by the industry, citing an annual survey showing that nearly two-thirds of respondents view its performance as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ – a 5 percentage point increase over the previous year.

A similar percentage of respondents (67%) viewed the regulator’s actions as proportionate to the industry’s risks, and 70% agreed the regulator was proactive in reducing serious risks to fund members’ benefits.

Chief executive Bill Galvin said the regulator would continue to work in a “transparent manner”.

“To achieve our statutory objectives, we need the confidence of our stakeholder,” he said.

“There are huge challenges ahead, and our goal is to maintain these positive results as we engage with the industry in the future.”

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