The Universities Superannuation Scheme, one of the biggest in the UK with a £30bn-plus portfolio, is planning to create a new investment subsidiary, which it will own in its entirety, in a piece of regulatory tidying-up that gives its in-house fund managers clear responsibility for day-to-day investment decisions.

The pension scheme's management organisation, USS Ltd, said in its annual accounts, released last Friday, that it was "currently undertaking a project which ... would see the transfer of the company's investment management operations to a wholly owned subsidiary."