FTSE 350 companies are in the strongest position to support their defined benefit schemes since the 2007/08 financial crisis, a new report has found. However, the gap between the index’s winners and losers continues to rise.

Charities are catching up with private sector employers as the number of defined benefit schemes closed to accrual jumped to 58 per cent at March 2017 from 43 per cent a year earlier, according to consultancy Hymans Robertson.

Analysis: Trustees may be tempted to act upon the past few weeks’ eurozone headlines, which have detailed sweeping geopolitical change across Italy and Spain and frightened investors in the process.

The Isle of Wight Pension Fund has implemented an improvement plan in relation to approximately 1,500 records containing “significantly problematic” conditional data, as it grapples with longstanding issues over member information.

Trustees are required under the Pensions Act 2004 to make sure that at least one-third of trustees, or at least one-third of directors of the trustee company, are nominated by the scheme membership. But what is the best way to appoint member-nominated trustees?

The number of public service pension schemes disclosing inadequate processes for monitoring data accuracy and completeness has risen, as the Pensions Regulator pledges to clamp down on those falling below the standards it expects.