The UK's pension nightmare is seemingly never-ending. But BMW's innovative deal with Deutsche Bank to insure £3bn (€3.4bn) of its pension liabilities, or the entirety of its pension-drawing work force of about 60,000, against increased longevity, offers hope to companies eager to reduce exposure to volatile pension deficits. It also offers a potential fresh lease on life to the UK's stalled fledgling pension-buyout industry.

During the boom, a number of start-up funds raised money in the expectation that companies would take advantage of narrowing deficits to shed their pension liabilities to an insurer. But the financial crisis caused deficits to balloon again as asset prices fell and bond spreads widened, increasing the value of liabilities. That made a full pension buyout prohibitively expensive for most fund sponsors.