This is taken from The Times, October 23, 2008:

BBC pension scheme loses £1bn in value in four months
by Miles Costello

The BBC has become one of the latest casualties of sliding share markets as it emerged yesterday that as much as £1billion had been wiped off the value of its pension scheme in less than four months.

According to members of the BBC's pension scheme, its assets stood at £7.98billion at the end of June. Almost £2billion of that was invested in British equities, which have fallen by about 35 per cent on this time last year. Scheme members said that they had been told at a presentation this week that, by the end of September, tumbling investment markets had reduced assets to £7.4billion.

An executive responsible for the pension scheme said that the figure could have fallen to as low as £6.9billion since then. The BBC has been trying to reduce its exposure to equities in recent weeks. The fund still operates a surplus based on the FRS17 accounting standard and there is no danger of it not being able to honour its pension obligations.

A BBC official said: “The BBC pension scheme is not immune from market forces and the value of our assets fluctuates as markets rise and fall. The scheme is, however, well placed to ride out the storm. It has a diverse portfolio, which provides a degree of protection.”

The scheme is one of numerous UK pension funds to suffer sharp falls in assets since the market turbulence began. The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares has fallen by more than 20percent in the past month alone.

Sliding markets will still represent a worry to some of the 19,500 BBC staff who pay into the scheme, as well as the 21,000 pensioners and 18,000 deferred members.

Jack Thompson, a committee member of the BBC Pensioners' Association, said: “We're not surprised to learn that it has lost some money. We got some assurances that it was being run efficiently and well. There is no sense of panic, but as soon as you see a figure that goes down like that, you begin to get worried.”