funding level

AMEC has seen its pension surplus halve as a falling discount contributed to actuarial losses of £71m for its UK scheme.

This could be a dire year for schemes as last year's losses are compounded in the first quarter and crystallised for the 40% of schemes with triennial valuations in March, warns Pension Corporation.

Funding positions have improved slightly this month as rising asset values offset increasing liabilities which were pushed out by record low discount rates.

Pension deficits increased more than 50% last year, but widening spreads between corporate bonds and gilts have masked an even greater deterioration in funding positions, argues Hymans Robertson.

Trustees have been urged to review their approach to calculating cash equivalent transfer values to avoid putting scheme finances at risk.

TUI Travel's pension deficit has climbed above £500m as poor asset performance and changes to actuarial assumptions wiped out savings made by capping benefit accrual.

Dixons Retail has made the initial contributions of a ten-year recovery plan to address its £219m pension shortfall.

Diploma is exploring ways to de-risk its defined benefit scheme through structured insurance products after completing a merger of four schemes into one.

The Marks & Spencer pension scheme's net surplus has grown from £168.5m to £221.2m over the last six months, driven by asset performance.

FRANCE - Alcatel-Lucent reported a pension and other post employment benefit (OPEB) deficit of €1.2bn ($1.7bn) in the third quarter down from an overfunding of €49m at the end of June.