Understanding investments

Your contributions (if any) and those that the Bank makes on your behalf are paid into your individual Pension Account. The contributions are used to buy units in your chosen funds, until you access them at retirement or decide to change your instruction. The available funds are described in more detail in the investment options section of this site.

The scheme offers four lifestyle strategies. A lifestyle is designed to address the different investment risks you face throughout your working life. Your mix of investment funds will change, automatically, according to the number of years you have before your expected retirement.

As the name suggests, the Default Lifestyle is the fund that your Pension Account will be invested in if no other instruction has been provided.

If you adopt the Lifestyle approach you should strongly consider indicating your anticipated retirement age. The default position will assume a retirement age of 65, however an indication of your anticipated retirement date will allow the lifestyle strategy to target the most appropriate date as this will have a direct impact on the investment of your pension and allows us to ensure the automatic switching of your units and contributions over the period close to your retirement date.

You can change your target retirement date at any time by logging in to the pension portal under the 'My Investments' section.

If you wish to select your own investment choices, you will need to consider what level of investment risk you are willing to take against the return that might be achieved. Risk is related to the probability that an investment will lead to a gain or loss. Generally speaking, the greater the risk, the greater the possible gain – or loss.

You should also bear in mind how many years you are from your planned or expected retirement date. The further away, the more prepared you may be to take a relatively higher degree of risk with your investment, as you will have more time to take corrective action. In particular you may choose a higher investment risk set out in the investment options section.

You can track your fund performance by logging in to the pension portal under the ‘'My Pension' section.

You will also receive annual benefit statements which show the current unit totals and values of your pension fund. For further information contact the Scheme administrator, Capita.

Yes. You can change your investment strategy between Lifestyle and Self-Select or change your Self-Select allocation at any stage. Currently, switches are free of charges.

The Trustees will automatically allow you to change your investment strategy up to four times in every 12 months. If you wish to make more investment changes than this, then the Trustees will consider any reasonable request but reserve the right to charge a reasonable administration fee where necessary.

Please note that neither the Trustees nor the Scheme administrators, Capita, can provide you with financial advice. It is your responsibility to choose where to invest the contributions paid into the Scheme.