If you've enjoyed an August holiday and returned feeling that one or two developments might have slipped past you unnoticed, this article could help. It summarises the key pensions issues in the news, consultation documents, and Pensions Updates.

Equitable Life continued to mirror the foot-and-mouth disaster, as investors who decided the latest 16% cut in terminal bonus was the last straw found their escape blocked by a huge traffic jam in Equitable's administration system. (Aficionados of the Equitable mess click here for a useful resource site.)

Survey reports this month from both W M Mercer (money purchase schemes) and Bacon & Woodrow (final salary) demonstrated starkly the funding problem that faces UK pension schemes and their members. The very vocal campaign for abolition of compulsory purchase of annuities at age 75 for example is arguably a sideshow in comparison, as very few individuals enjoy the luxury of surplus capital over immediate needs - and even fewer can manage on drawdown or other income up to that age anyway. (See the article "What Annuity Problem?" by Peter Quinton in July's Pensions Management.)

Equally well-known to pensions folk is the fact that exercising an open market option at retirement can often secure a better annuity. 75% of retirees apparently don't, though; so the FSA plans to enforce disclosure of the option. Some offices won't like it, but as the ABI has endorsed it this proposal looks a racing certainty.

More broadly, consultation is under way on the Review of Medium and Long-term Retail Savings (the "Sandler Review"). Following on from Myners, this review will examine all aspects of the value chain, from product design through distribution to the final customer. It is likely to be just as influential as Myners. The deadline for responses is Friday 28 September 2001.

Three consultation exercises are in progress on new legislation. The DWP has issued draft Regulations under ss. 47 - 50 of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 which gives Opra powers to speed up the winding-up of occupational pension schemes. Comments are required by 23 October 2001, with the new Regs due to come into force on 6 April 2002.

The DWP is also consulting on amendments to the Disclosure Regs, designed to effect the long-trailed innovation of money purchase illustrations. At the same time, a technical memorandum [PDF] setting out the method of calculating the illustrations has been produced on behalf of the Secretary of State by the Faculty of Actuaries and the Institute of Actuaries. Comments on both these documents are required by 5 November 2001.

Finally, the Revenue is consulting the industry on draft amendments to the Information Powers Regulations SI 1995/3103, asking for responses by 2 November 2001. The draft Regs are not yet on the web, but should be soon. Two new requirements are proposed: a whistleblowing obligation on all the trustees of SSASs (ie not just the pensioneer trustee, as originally proposed), and a new transfer rule concerning SSASs. Whereas at the moment all transfers to or from a SSAS require prior IR SPSS approval, it is proposed that in future where the member is a controlling director or a Schedule D taxpayer, the transfer value is £250,000 or more, and an occupational pension scheme or a deferred annuity contract is involved, the transfer must be reported within 28 days of the event.

Even though it's been a holiday month, IR SPSS has still managed to produce two (short) Pensions Updates. The final nail in the coffin of interim authorisation is announced in Pensions Update No. 103: from 6 April 2002, applications for approval must be submitted with definitive documentation and rules. The only exception will be for schemes set up as a result of the sale of an employer or part of an employer's trade. A joint working group with industry representatives is currently finalising a replacement procedure for interim authorisation; publication is expected by the end of the year.