Pensions watchdog called in to emergency talks on UK market turmoil

The watchdog is understood to have been summoned to meetings triggered when there is a threat of major disruption to financial services. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

The Pensions Regulator has for the first time been drafted into high-level emergency talks led by the Treasury and Bank of England as they examine measures to calm financial markets in the wake of the meltdown which followed Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.

The watchdog, which oversees the £1.5tn pension sector, is understood to have been summoned into closed-door meetings of the Authorities’ Response Framework (ARF), which are triggered when an “incident or threat” could cause major disruption to financial services in the UK.