The UK’s occupational pension system was once the envy of the world and a source of competitive advantage for the economy. Not any more.  Many other countries now boast systems that work better for members and for employers.

To improve the prospects for both, pressure has been building to tackle one of the UK’s biggest weaknesses – the huge number of small, final salary pension schemes. In a recent white paper, the government backed the idea of commercial consolidators that would take schemes off the hands of their company sponsors and merge them to generate economies of scale. Almost before the white paper’s ink was dry came the announcement of plans for just such a fund. So perhaps consolidation is an idea whose time has finally come.