This paper began as an attempt to produce a “CSFI position” on the UK pensions crisis. It is written (in a personal capacity) by WestLB’s executive director for corporate communications, on the basis of the barrow-load of notes, reports etc. that the CSFI has generated on the pensions issue over the last few years. It ended up as a personal view by the author – albeit one with which we at the CSFI are strongly in agreement. It is also a paper that ought to provoke a lively political debate: the pensions crisis is a pensions scandal, and it ought to be front-and-centre in the next few weeks.