Gilt-y as charged: Why pension funds need to greater margin sophistication

Liquidity challenge

An unforeseen fiscal policy straight out of the 1980s has fundamentally shaken the underlying structures of UK sovereign bond markets functioning in the 2020s.

Would an esoteric issue such as pension funds making margin calls in the event of government debt spiking to post-2008 levels really have made it on the Number 10 agenda? Or perhaps they thought the central bank will eventually step in? Well, if they were thinking the latter, they were right in a big way - the Bank of England is now committed to buying huge quantities of government bonds at an urgent pace to ease investor concerns. Why? Well just the small matter of stopping mass insolvencies. But there is a deeper market structure issue to fallout from investors losing faith in the 30-y...