The road to UK pension derisking could be facing a new challenge. With strict new regulations biting on insurers, as the pension liabilities of UK corporates continue to increase, there are fears that the pensions buyout market is heading for a capacity crunch.

Total pension liabilities of FTSE 250 companies increased to £81 billion in mid-2015, up from £75 billion the year before, according to a report by JLT Employee Benefits in January 2016. Such is the extent of the pensions burden on UK corporates that JLT expects there to be few, if any, remaining open defined benefit schemes run by FTSE 250 firms by the end of the year.