News: Schemes sell their assets short with short selling.

Pensions Week, June, 2009

Byline: Frank Field - MP for Wirral

Are the bevies of safeguards introduced since the Maxwell snatch of pension funds being circumvented by short selling? That was the worry I had when I introduced a bill to forbid short-term selling. Events since then have compounded my fears.

I chaired the Select Committee, which began the debate on pension reform after it was found out that Robert Maxwell had taken shares from Maxwell company pension funds. Our aim was to ensure that pension fund assets could not be put at risk again from such behaviour. A whole series of reforms would prevent an individual stealing pension assets a la Maxwell.

The image we held in our minds then was of individuals, or small groups of crooks, trying to get their hands...

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