Tag Archives: USS
Thames Water – do consumers take priority over bond and shareholders?
This blog is about the competing interests for the long-term revenues of Thames Water. JP Morgan have furnished the FT with a chart showing who owns what at Thames Water. It shows USS owning 9.1% of the equity , though … Continue reading
Why are the future costs of USS membership linked to the gilt yield?
In this Guest post , Jackie Grant and Mark Taylor-Batty wonder why estimates of USS future service costs go up and down in line with the gilt yield. Jackie and Mark have expressed thanks to Con Keating for his expertise … Continue reading
USS – rosy headlines for now- thorny details to come.
There cannot be a university teacher in the land who is not pleased to hear news that their pension scheme is in rude health. Not only is the DB plan that provides the vast majority of retirement income to the … Continue reading
Capita admits 470,000 academics’ pension data hacked
Three of Capita’s servers were hacked in March of this year. The Sunday Times put the hack on its front page in April and since then Capita has been reporting on its cyber incident. You can read the details on … Continue reading
Benefits will be restored at USS but will common sense?
UCU members in their tens of thousands have voted overwhelmingly to move forward with pension proposals agreed with employers which will pave the way for the restoration of benefits. When we launched our pensions dispute, university vice chancellors doubted us, … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged Common sense, Con Keating, DB pensions, Jo Grady, Pensions, trust, UCU, USS, UUK
3 Comments
USS and Exhaustion – Con Keating
Shortly after it was published in early March by USS, I was asked to review their note “USS briefing: Capital funding and exhaustion risk – distribution of outcomes”. The stated reason for it was: “This briefing note provides details … Continue reading
USS – you’ve never had it so good/bad – (delete as necessary)
How USS sees itself and how others see it. I have just read an article that relates the views of Simon Pilcher on the success of USS’ investment strategy in the 12 months to September 2022. The Universities Superannuation Scheme, … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged assets, gobbledeegook, LDI, leverage, Pensions, Simon Pilcher, USS, VFM
6 Comments
USS – Con Keating
I do not envy the task of the new CEO of USS, though I must state that I have no insight who this might be. Over the past decade, the governance of USS has degenerated into a disgrace, … Continue reading
USS disclosure- in need of a “deus ex machina”.
Reading the latest acrimonious exchanges between the University Employers and the staff union UCU is a depressing business. UUK, who say they are taking their lead from the USS pension scheme stand accused of underestimating the scale of the … Continue reading