Standard Life's UK pensions chief steps down

(ShareCast News) - Standard Life pensions and savings chief Paul Matthews will retire from the life insurer after 28 years at the company.Matthews, who will step down from the board at the start of March, will be replaced by Barry O'Dwyer, currently chief executive of Standard Life Assurance, just as the UK pensions industry faces a review of workplace pension pricing later this year.O'Dwyer joined Standard Life in 1988, a year after Matthews, before leaving in 2008 for senior roles with HBOS and then to become Prudential's deputy chief executive for UK and Europe. He rejoined Standard Life in 2013 as boss of the workplace and corporate pensions business and was promoted to his current role last year. Matthews has been in his current role since 2012 and has been on the board since 2015.Chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone praised Matthew's "dedication and commitment" to the FTSE 100 company that he said was "unparalleled".In welcoming O'Dwyer, Grimstone highlighted his "extensive knowledge of the savings market" that the board believe will provide "valuable insight to inform our thinking and ensure customer and client interests remain at the centre of our decision making".Standard Life shares were up 1.5% to 354.9p at 1100 GMT on Thursday.Earlier in the week UBS downgraded its rating on the company driven by analysts' expectation for earnings pressure to emerge in the investments arm, while expressing a positive view on the UK life arm but noting that concerns about margins remain an overhang "compounded by the workplace pension pricing review in 2017 and implications for fee structures of the asset management competition review".