Bayer Adopts Pension Governance Solution

May 19, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - In response to the UK Pensions Regulator's urgings for pension trustees to improve their understanding and knowledge of the plans they manage, Bayer PLC has announced implementation of eShare, a pensions governance system.

According to the announcement, eShares will give Bayer pension trustees access to all types of information and to each other.  The eShare Web-based solution:

  • Acts as an interface to every piece of static or dynamic information relating to pensions governance, and;
  • Securely delivers that information to all relevant parties – from trustees to actuaries.

The solution focuses the trustees on the issues at hand, whether a decision, a meeting, a document, a process or a business plan task – which in turn enables better decision-making and greater accountability, the announcement said.   A recent study from Oxford University found that the average pension fund trustee in the UK lacks the education and qualifications to be an informed consumer of advice and decisionmaking (See Study: Average UK Pension Fund Trustee Lacks Competence).

The Pensions Regulator’s report on pension strategy pointed to the need for schemes to improve trustee education and training (See UK Pensions Regulator Sets Three-Year Strategy ). The eShare solution addresses this specific point with a Trusteeship area where trustees can access training resources and record the activities they perform.

“This report confirms what many of us have known for a while – that if we are going to improve pensions governance we must give Trustees every tool available to do the job properly,” said Bayer’s Pension Governance Director Trevor Dickson, in the announcement. “That starts with improved transparency and quality information but goes much further – and that is what eShare will provide.”

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