Lloyds Loses Pension Investment Chief | Chief Investment Officer

The head of investments for Lloyds Bank’s pension funds has left the group, Chief Investment Officer has learned.

Simon Lee has overseen investments for the UK bank’s multiple defined benefit (DB) pensions for seven years, since joining from telent in 2008. CIO understands he is to take up a similar role at high street store chain Marks & Spencer’s DB pension, which is known as the Marks & Spencer Pension Trust.

Lee’s departure follows the exit of Larissa Benbow from Lloyds subsidiary Halifax Bank of Scotland’s DB pension earlier this year.

In March, Lloyds Banking Group appointed Momentum Investment Solutions & Consulting as an outsourced CIO (OCIO)—the South African company’s first UK mandate—with Richard Cooper taking on the CIO role for both the Lloyds Bank and HBOS pensions. The funds have combined assets of more than £32 billion ($48 billion).

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A spokesperson for Lloyds Banking Group had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication. A Marks & Spencer spokesperson had also not responded.

PIMCO’s Total Return Fund has lost its title of the world’s largest bond mutual fund to Vanguard after suffering 24 consecutive months of outflows.

According to the Newport Beach, California-based firm’s most recent data, its flagship fund lost $5.6 billion in April, shrinking its total assets down to $110.4 billion.

PIMCO’s fund fell behind rival Vanguard’s Total Bond Market Index fund, which reported $117.3 billion under management as of April 30, according to the firm’s preliminary data.

Vanguard’s spokesperson said the fund has “benefited from a diverse base of long-term shareholders” that are drawn to the fund because it “provides broad diversification to the bond market at a low cost.”

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Clients have pulled more than $110 billion from PIMCO’s fund since its peak of $293 billion two years ago.

In December 2013, after the fund suffered its seventh consecutive months of outflows, then-CIO Bill Gross said the firm had plans to reposition the portfolio to secure its number one spot.

“We have positioned our bond wars portfolio—heavily front-end maturity loaded along with credit, volatility, and curve steepening positions, with the aim of outperforming Vanguard as well as many other active managers,” the bond king said in an investment outlook.

The Total Return Fund hemorrhaged a record $27.5 billion in withdrawals last October, when Gross exited the firm. Outflows peaked the day Gross left, PIMCO said, at an estimated $8 billion.

The fund is now run by CIOs Scott Mather, Mark Kiesel, and Mihir Worah and returned 1.62% net-of-fees for year-to-date through April. Total Return also outperformed its benchmark by 38 basis points, PIMCO said.

Gross now manages a $1.5 billion global unconstrained bond fund for Janus Capital.

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