ABSTRACT
The total market valuation of the investments held by UK occupational pension funds at the end of 1984 amounted to £130,291 million. Pension fund assets are broadly comparable in size to those of insurance companies, though their growth has been somewhat faster in recent years, and the proposed changes in pension provision in the UK are likely to cause this trend to continue. It is important to recognize, however, that the global total disguises the fundamental division within the arrangements for pension provision between the state schemes on the one hand and the occupational schemes on the other. It is the latter schemes which give rise to financial intermediation activity, and it is these which are the focus of the discussion in this chapter. Nevertheless, as will be explained subsequently, developments within the state provision of pensions have important implications for the occupational schemes.
