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The National Association of Pension Funds' Annual Conference took place in October and brought together 1,350 industry professionals and approximately 80 exhibitors over the three days. Speakers included former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, the Chairman of The Pensions Regulator Michael O'Higgins, and both the Shadow Minister for Pensions Greg McClymont and Minister for Pensions Steve Webb. The agenda was focussed on the future of U.K. pensions, with issues such as auto-enrolment reform, regulation on enhanced transfer value exercises, defined contribution default design, trust-based schemes and the future of defined benefit provision all discussed.
After the conference, Senior Reporter Peter Walker asked three key attendees to dig a bit deeper into these issues and look forward to the challenges ahead in 2012. Full coverage of the conference can be found on iisearches.com.
Steve Webb, Minister for Pensions
In his keynote speech to delegates, Webb announced an initiative to clean up cash-incentivised pension transfers, renewed his commitments to the auto-enrolment reform schedule and commented on the increasing shift from DB to DC pensions in the U.K.
GMMQ: 2012 will be a make-or-break year for the government's pension reforms, given the auto-enrolment exemption for small businesses. How confident are you that there will be no more delays in the schedule?
Webb: Our commitment to automatic enrolment starting in 2012 remains unchanged. We recognise that small businesses are operating in tough economic times, so we are softening the timetable for implementation to give them some additional breathing space. This is a sensible step that ensures long-term pension issues are addressed while meeting the short- and medium-term needs of small business. We are committed to ensuring the employees of these small businesses get the chance to save and that is why no one will miss out.
GMMQ: How far do you think the cleanup of cash-based pension transfers needs to go?
Webb: I have made it clear that cash bribes in exchange for lower pensions and deliberately misleading pensioners into signing away their inflation indexing will not be allowed to continue. I have no problem with firms managing their liabilities responsibly, but despite warnings early this year, I'm still seeing examples of bad practice.
We are working with the industry and have established a new working group...