Defending defined benefit

Railpen's chief executive Chris Hitchen helps UK railway pension managers look after £15 billion in defined benefit plan assets. He says an investment in alternative assets is important but, ultimately, might not be enough. By Alexander Campbell

The privatisation of the UK railway system in the mid-1990s broke up the old state-owned British Rail into more than a hundred separate companies – but left them under a single pension management company, the Railway Pensions Trustee Company, and its investment arm, Railpen.

Overall, Railpen represents some 340,000 members and manages more than £15 billion in assets on their behalf – making it the third-largest occupational pension scheme in the UK. But each railway company runs its own pension