US fund manager AllianceBernstein, which lost a lot of business from UK pension schemes following underperformance during the financial crisis, has begun a fightback by attracting £1bn of commitments to its latest pensions offering in less than a year.

From October, UK goverment reforms will oblige all companies to provide a pension scheme for staff. Most are expected to choose defined-contribution, or DC, style plans. AllianceBernstein is pitching into this market and has grown quickly in the past 10 months.