News analysis: The government’s decision to ban consultancy charges in all auto-enrolment schemes has been broadly welcomed, but the change is predicted to have a big impact on smaller employers.

The £8.8bn West Yorkshire Pension Fund has kicked off plans for a series of roadshows later this year to communicate to its almost 100,000 active members changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

News analysis: The Pensions Regulator’s 2013 annual funding statement has set out the flexibilities open to schemes in the tough economic climate, but pension professionals have said those carrying out valuations this year could find the process challenging.

Pension professionals have welcomed plans for the government to legislate on further minimum standards for auto-enrolment to ensure schemes meet quality benchmarks.

Prudential Staff Pension Scheme has made some tweaks to its benefits set-up to meet the legislative requirements for auto-enrolment, including setting its multi-asset lifecycle strategy as the scheme default.

Contract caterer Elior is preparing for a series of peaks during the initial stages of going live with auto-enrolment in July, due to the seasonal nature of its work in the sports industry. 

The £1.4bn Dyfed Pension Fund has increased its emerging market equities exposure by 5 percentage points, the latest scheme to sell UK and European equities to target growth assets further afield.

The Pension Protection Fund has called upon schemes to report investments according to their characteristics rather than underlying securities, after professionals raised the prospect of different readings of its guidance reducing scheme levies.

News analysis: The government’s planned automatic transfer for pension pots worth less than £10,000 could prove costly for schemes, stakeholder groups have warned, while others have pointed to longer-term savings.