This week saw several developments in the industry, including a report from Make My Money Matter, which suggested pension providers continue to fail to address their role in financing the climate and nature crisis, posing a 'serious risk' to the retirement of British savers.

At the same time, however, pension schemes and providers have urged asset managers to evolve and strengthen their climate stewardship strategies in a new Asset Owner Statement on Climate Stewardship, highlighting the "imperative" need for climate action.

A desire for climate action was also reflected in research from Scottish Widows, which found that nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of UK employees said it was important that their employer offered a 'responsibly invested pension'.

Meanwhile, in the defined benefit (DB) space, research by Law Debenture revealed that more than half (52 per cent) of UK finance decision-makers believe DB pension schemes are more likely to run on for longer as a result of the liability-driven investment (LDI) crisis.

EY-Parthenon announced that UK-listed companies with DB pension schemes issued 81 profit warnings in 2024, the highest annual volume since 2020.

And the aggregate surplus of DB pension schemes also rose to £239bn in January 2025, as DB scheme funding continued to strengthen, according to the Pension Protection Fund's (PPF) 7800 Index.

In defined contribution (DC) pensions, providers of DC master trusts are directing an outsized portion of illiquid investments towards UK-based opportunities, with the majority planning to invest between 21 per cent to 30 per cent domestically and some committing over 40 per cent, Isio research has found.

Aon has argued that those running UK DC pension schemes are still too often underestimating the impact of gilt market volatility, suggesting this could have "significantly" adverse effects on member outcomes.

Research from Broadstone found that men over 16 have a median occupational DC pension pot of £10,000, whereas women in the same age group have £5,000, suggesting a "significant" gap in pension savings between genders.

Yet, growth in the largest DC markets meant total global pension assets rose to a record high of USD 58.5trn in 2024, according to an analysis from the Thinking Ahead Institute (TAI).

Another record was revealed this week, with sales of pension annuity contracts increasing by 24 per cent in 2024 to 89,600, surpassing last year's total and reaching a new ten-year high, figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) showed.

In government news, a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggested that there is a strong case for deferred small pension pots to be consolidated by default and urged the government to take action to stop and reverse the proliferation of small pension pots.

Meanwhile, the government's proposed reforms to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) present "significant challenges" to administering authorities (AAs), according to Quantum Advisory.

Finally, on the research front, Interactive Investor found a "stubborn" gender pensions gap across all ages, with women struggling to build pension wealth throughout their working lives.

Separately, research from the Money and Pensions Service (Maps) revealed that just over one in eight (13 per cent) young people could not answer a question correctly in a four-part true-or-false pension quiz.

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