News: BA cites actuarial process as cause of deficit.

Pensions Week, June, 2009

Byline: Charlie Kirby

British Airways (BA) chairman Martin Broughton has blamed his firm's spiralling pension scheme deficit on the processes employed by actuaries and accountants.

In BA's fourth quarter results briefing on May 22, Broughton confirmed that the merger talks with Spanish airline Iberia were ongoing but progressing at a slower pace, partly because of continuing concern about BA's pension deficit.

"It's little wonder that the Spanish have such difficulty understanding [our pensions]," he said. "It's clearly time that the actuarial and the accounting world got together and recognised the folly of having mechanical processes in place that produce such divergent results, neither of which really seem in touch with reality." ...

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