The Pension and Investment Provider Awards are offering entrants a further week to submit their bids to the judging panels, with a final deadline set for March 12.

The Pension and Investment Provider Awards welcome their first virtual judging panels, drawing on a wealth of industry experience to pick out standout performers in the pensions industry over the past year.

Pensions Expert’s annual awards are open for entries, with judges imploring providers that have not hid behind Covid excuses and managers that have truly set themselves apart on sustainability to come forward for consideration.

A round-up of the top global pensions stories from the FT group this week, from schemes ramping up pressure for gender disclosures, to a California pension moving to join the Facebook governance lawsuit.

Podcast: It has been a rocky few months for sterling, with the currency falling more than 7 per cent since May. In this podcast, Shoqat Bunglawala, head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s global portfolio solutions business, and Simeon Willis, chief investment officer at XPS Pensions, discuss the main reasons behind the decline, and what it means for pension funds.

Podcast: The Pensions Regulator’s latest defined contribution survey revealed that only 4 per cent of micro schemes and 1 per cent of small schemes are meeting all of the watchdog’s governance standards. David Fairs, TPR's executive director for regulatory policy, analysis and advice, has previously described the "long tail" of underperforming smaller schemes as "unacceptable". In this podcast, Mr Fairs talks to Pensions Expert about what the survey's findings mean, and how the DC landscape might change. 

On the go: Pension provision and employer contributions vary wildly across UK employment sectors, with the financial services at the top and agriculture, forestry and fishing propping up the bottom of the tables.