The government closes its consultation on financing growth in innovative firms this week as it looks to increase scheme investment in ‘patient capital’, but concerns persist over the suitability of this asset class for pension schemes.

Analysis: Last week, State Street agreed to pay approximately $35m (£26m) to settle a pair of complaints by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it defrauded six institutional investors while conducting transition management services.*

One in 12 transfers may have been subject to fraudulent activity, a new report has found. The figure has fallen from last year’s corresponding study, which found potential scams in as many as one in nine cases.

Analysis: Prudent liability management features among the priorities of pension funds and insurers alike. Experts have previously called upon investors to think more like insurers, but differences in objectives, regulatory requirements and scale mean that total strategic convergence between schemes and insurers is unlikely.

Trustees have shown more inclination towards using third-party evaluators as part of the fiduciary management selection process, a new report has shown. Mid-sized schemes continue to flock towards fiduciary management.

A new report on pension scheme governance calls for greater focus on improving the quality of structures and personnel, or ‘inputs’, and argues that processes have received excessive attention.

Any Other Business: Trustees, consultants and asset managers flock to stuffy conference halls across the country to deliver speeches, spill pints and engage in lively debate over the issues of our time, but what does the pensions conference really bring to its participants?

Analysis: As more asset managers announce their decision to absorb research costs in response to Mifid II, experts speculate that schemes may benefit from better returns and greater transparency.