Sustainability Principles Charter for the Bulk Annuity Process: Annual Report

“Two years on, the Charter has shifted decisively from aspiration to action. With 100% of the UK bulk annuity market now committed, combined with a single sustainability survey, the market is demonstrating how collaboration can raise standards while improving efficiency. With billions of bulk annuity transactions anticipated over the coming decade, embedding sustainability across this market will be critical to long-term financial resilience.”

Kerry King, Executive Director, Capital Markets

The 2025 progress report marks two years since the launch of the Sustainability Principles Charter for the bulk annuity process. It shows full market adoption of a unified sustainability framework across the UK bulk purchase annuity (BPA) sector, strengthening the integration of sustainability into decision making.

All UK BPA providers are now adopting the charter’s four principles to embed sustainability more consistently into pension buy-in and buyout transactions. Supported by the single, standardized Bulk Annuity Sustainability Survey (BASS) – developed by this initiative and now adopted across the industry – and ongoing cross-industry collaboration, the charter is enabling pension schemes to compare insurers’ sustainability practices more consistently and reinforcing sustainability as a key selection criterion in the BPA selection process.

If you would like to find out more about this initiative, please email info@a4s.org.

This report outlines the progress made, with key highlights including:

• Full market participation – all insurers operating in the UK BPA market are now signatories to the charter.
• Broad industry engagement – the charter includes 13 advisers representing £3.4 trillion of UK-based assets under advice and pension schemes representing £131 billion of member assets.
• Governance and collaboration – a cross-industry governance structure supports the integration of sustainability not only at the point of transaction, but throughout the life cycle of the assets backing pension promises. Work is underway to explore how other parts of the BPA process, for example reinsurers, can engage with this work.
• Industry-wide adoption of the BASS – the BASS replaces multiple adviser-specific sustainability questionnaires with a single, standardized survey aligned to the charter principles. This has reduced the average number of sustainability surveys insurers have to complete each year from around ten to one, improving efficiency. It has also enabled better comparability within the sector.

Next steps

The initiative’s cross-industry working and steering groups  meet regularly to ensure the continued success of the Charter, including the industry-wide adoption of the BASS.

Work is underway to explore how other parts of the BPA process, eg reinsurers, can engage with this work