Pensions Weekly Update – 17 August 2022

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Here is our weekly summary of key legal and regulatory developments relevant to occupational pension schemes, which you might have missed, with links for further information.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a blog on refinancing in the current climate. In the blog, David Fairs, Executive Director of Regulatory Policy, Analysis and Advice, looks at the challenges that employers may face with a return to more "business as usual" refinancing practices. The blog notes that any type of refinancing can have an impact on the strength of the employer covenant and trustees should make sure that they understand the implications of the different issues that could arise, especially where there is a change of lender that might have different risk appetites and objectives. Employers should remember to engage with their pension trustees when entering into any type of transaction that could impact the strength of the employer covenant, particularly where it might move the trustees down the priority order on an insolvency.
A recording is available of the pensions dashboards webinar that TPR encouraged all trustees, scheme managers and administrators to attend. As a reminder, TPR’s interim dashboards guidance for trustees contains a useful checklist of actions.
After a recent deluge of pensions news, there seems to have been little happening this week. For a comprehensive roundup of some of the biggest pensions topics this year, watch out for our back to school pensions lessons for trustees, which will be published in early September.

If you would like specific advice on any of these issues, or on anything else, please contact a member of our Pensions team.