After initially responding positively to UK government calls for the private sector to come up with a viable alternative to the National Pension Saving Scheme, the Association of British Insurers has now cooled on the challenge and may be about to turn its back on government plans.
Reported by IFA Online, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) is reviewing its initial bullish response that it could meet the challenge issued by the UK government and instead is believed to be considering diverting its efforts away from state ideas.
According to IFA Online’s article, sources close to the ABI say the trade body made a ‘knee-jerk reaction’ to the challenge issued by Stephen Timms, minister for Pensions Reform. The sources suggest that the organization was so quick to take up the challenge to show its confidence and desire to a part of the process that it failed to evaluate whether the government’s ideas for pension reform was in-line with its own thinking first.
Now after a period of review, some ABI members doubt whether a system in the mode of the National Pension Saving Scheme is actually the right way to go. The ABI has recently met and its reviewed position is expected to be revealed shortly.