Experian 2011 Annual Report Download - page 139

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Financial statements 137
34. Retirement benet assets and obligations
(a) Retirement benet arrangements
(i) Funded pension arrangements
The Group operates dened benet and dened contribution pension plans in a number of countries. A dened benet pension plan denes an
amount of pension benet that an employee will receive on retirement, usually dependent on one or more factors such as age, years of service
and compensation. A dened contribution pension plan denes the amount of contributions that are paid by the Group into an independently
administered fund.
The Group’s principal dened benet plan is the Experian Pension Scheme which provides benets for certain UK employees but was closed
to new entrants in the year ended 31 March 2009. The Group provides a dened contribution plan, the Experian Money Purchase Pension Plan,
to other eligible UK employees. Both plans are governed by trust deeds which ensure that their nances and governance are independent from
those of the Group. In North America and Latin America, benets are determined in accordance with local practice and regulations and funding
is provided accordingly. There are no other material funded pension arrangements.
The Experian Pension Scheme has rules which specify the benets to be paid and is nanced accordingly. A full actuarial funding valuation
of this plan is carried out every three years with interim reviews in the intervening years. The latest full valuation was carried out as at 31 March
2010 by independent, qualied actuaries, Towers Watson Limited, using the projected unit credit method. Under this method of valuation the
current service cost will increase as members approach retirement due to the ageing active membership of the plan. There was a surplus at the
date of the 2010 full actuarial valuation and accordingly no decit repayment contributions are currently required. The next full valuation will be
carried out as at 31 March 2013. As indicated below, the scheme has been affected by the requirement of the UK Government that the Consumer
Prices Index (the ‘CPI’) rather than the Retail Prices Index (the ‘RPI’) be used as the ination measure for determining the minimum pension
increases to be applied to statutory index-linked features of retirement benets.
(ii) Unfunded pension arrangements
The Group has had unfunded pension arrangements in place for a number of years designed to ensure that certain directors and senior
managers in the UK who are affected by the earnings cap are placed in broadly the same position as those who are not. Additionally there are
unfunded arrangements for one current director of the Company and certain former directors and employees of Experian Finance plc. The Group
also has in place arrangements which secure certain of these unfunded arrangements in the UK by granting charges to an independent trustee
over independently managed portfolios of marketable securities owned by the Group. The amount of assets so charged is adjusted periodically
to keep the ratio of assets charged to the discounted value of the accrued benets secured as close as possible to the corresponding ratio in
the Experian Pension Scheme. The total value of such assets at 31 March 2011 was US$36m (2010: US$32m) and these are reported as available
for sale nancial assets (note 30). Further details of the pension arrangements for directors appear in the audited part of the report on directors’
remuneration.
(iii) Post-retirement healthcare arrangements
The Group operates plans which provide post-retirement healthcare benets to certain retired employees and their dependant relatives.
The principal plan relates to former employees in the UK and, under this plan, the Group has undertaken to meet the cost of post-retirement
healthcare for all eligible former employees who retired prior to 1 April 1994 and their dependants.
(b) Retirement benet assets and obligations - disclosures
The disclosures required by IAS 19 ‘Employee benets’, which relate to the Group’s UK dened benet pension arrangements and post-
retirement healthcare obligations only, are as follows:
(i) Retirement benet assets/(obligations) recognised in the Group balance sheet 2011
US$m
2010
US$m
Retirement benet assets/(obligations) - funded plans:
Fair value of funded plans' assets 913 822
Present value of funded plans’ liabilities (807) (860)
Surplus in the funded plans 106 -
Decit in the funded plans - (38)
Retirement benet obligations - unfunded plans:
Present value of unfunded pension obligations (39) (36)
Liability for post-retirement healthcare (12) (14)
Retirement benet obligations - unfunded plans (51) (50)
Net retirement benet assets/(obligations) 55 (88)