The prospects for pension funds’ inflation and interest-rate swaps strategies appear to be under threat from new EU rules, but observers said last week they could see a possible way out of the problem. Observers are hopeful of either a delay or an exemption to the EU’s stringent new rules governing derivatives.

There are two main difficulties with the regulation, but one could be solved by regulators granting pension funds a delay; the other will probably require some clever thinking by providers.