ICI Pension Fund has completed five buy-ins since March, insuring more than £2.5bn liabilities over the same period.

Two of the buy-ins, £390m with Legal & General and £590m with Scottish Widows, took place in September.

They bring the total liabilities insured since 2013 to more than £8bn across 11 transactions.

The Fund has insured more than twice the amount of liabilities through buy-ins than any other UK pension fund.

Heath Mottram, CEO of the ICI pension fund, said the Fund has benefited from competitive pricing: "Competitive pricing benefits us on a frequent and ongoing basis, due to the strength of our governance and unique contract documentation."

"We see this becoming a blueprint for how larger schemes will insure their liabilities at scale through buy-ins in the future," he said.

Pension consultant LCP, estimates the Fund has saved more than £100m in the past two years through insuring liabilities over time with a panel of insurers through umbrella contracts – an approach that has a number of advantages.

It means insurers know the fund can transact quickly if pricing is competitive – and they reward this certainty with keener pricing, effectively placing the Fund at the front of the queue.

The Fund can also move quickly to lock in market opportunities as they arise, such as the £750m buy-in executed with L&G in the week after the EU referendum vote in June.

Clive Wellsteed, partner at LCP, said: "With a knowledgeable and proactive trustee board, well-rehearsed processes and umbrella contracts with insurers already in place, we have been able to achieve considerable savings in insurer pricing – even a conservative estimate would put the saving for the Fund at well over £100m over the past two years."

"We have seen an increase in insurer appetite and activity since the referendum in June, and for schemes holding bonds or gilts there are compelling opportunities to de-risk at attractive levels through buy-ins," he added.

First published 06.10.2016

Lindsay.sharman@wilmingtonplc.com