Welcome to Professional Pensions Live 2024.

TPR has just unveiled its long-awaited general code of practice, allowing governing bodies to align their schemes with TPR's governance standards for the benefit of both regulators and savers. As the pensions industry braces for significant challenges in 2024 with impending changes in government legislation, regulations, and policies, this session offers a direct update from TPR to you.

This session will address:

• An update from TPR
• Industry expectations for the future
• Address concerns and questions regarding upcoming regulation

Louis Taylor, CEO of the British Business Bank, will discuss the role of the Bank as the largest domestic investor in UK venture capital, the current barriers that hold back some UK companies from scaling up and fulfilling their commercial potential, the Bank’s role in increasing both access to and the availability of long-term, patient capital, and its function in establishing an investment vehicle that could receive third-party capital, including pension fund investment.

The session will address:

• Challenges to innovation: The UK provides a fertile ground for innovation to thrive but a lack of sufficient patient capital continues to hold back some UK companies from scaling up and fulfilling their commercial potential.
• The opportunity for pension funds to embrace a new phase of growth and invest in innovation: The British Business Bank’s track record as the largest domestic investor in UK venture capital, and its market access to high growth companies, which unlock potential, back innovation and support the modern green economy.
• The role of the British Business Bank in driving this forward: Following last year’s Manion House speech, the British Business Bank’s role and progress in establishing an investment vehicle that could receive third-party capital such as pension fund investment, making use of the Bank’s track record and market access to a range of promising high growth companies.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) will mean different things to each of us, in a personal capacity as well as professionally. What was once a footnote in company policy is now driving change in the pensions industry and a growing awareness of its transformative power has hoisted DEI high on the agenda. In pensions, DEI is as much about social responsibility as it is fairness and it’s incumbent on all of us to ensure savers are part of a well-run pension scheme which supports their best interests, no matter who they are.

The Scottish Widows Master Trust is making significant strides in this area, successfully embedding a wide-ranging and comprehensive DEI framework which can be implemented and adapted by any trustee board or governance committee. Implementing the right DEI framework will ensure better decision making, through to inclusive engagement which ultimately improved member outcomes.

DEI is not a one-size-fits-all, but this session will help you to create and embed an DEI strategy that works for you and your members.

Time for the morning networking break. Grab a coffee & refreshment, network with your industry peers and explore the exhibition hall.

Time for the afternoon networking break. Grab a coffee & refreshment, network with your industry peers and explore the exhibition hall.

Leading up to 2023, the pensions sector saw a 4,000% increase in reported cybersecurity breaches to the ICO, revealing a concerning rise in perilous attacks. Many pension schemes have been affected, leading TPR to emphasise the inevitability of cyberattacks. This underscores the industry's heightened focus on prevention, incident management, member communications, and post-incident evaluations.

This session will address:

• Current scam tactics in the market
• Lessons from recent industry breach activity
• Best practices for effective management of scheme cyber resilience
• Response strategies for handling cyber-attacks when they do occur

Explore the horizon of the pensions industry with our distinguished panel of industry leaders in this afternoon session. Delve into candid discussions as they share insights on the evolving pensions landscape in the run-up to the general election, talk about what they would put in the pensions manifesto and ruminate on how pensions policy should develop over the coming five years’.

This session will address:

• Immediate challenges facing the pensions industry today and how the industry can best tackle this
• The impact of current and upcoming regulations on pension schemes
• How the role of technology in shaping the future of pensions
• The growing importance of sustainability in the pensions sector

Thank you for joining us for another fantastic year of Professional Pensions Live. Safe travels!

Thank you for joining and please join us for a drink!