The UK's fragmented and inefficient pensions industry, with tens of thousands of small subscale funds, is set for consolidation in the years ahead as new super-schemes known as "master trusts" come to play a major role in the market, according to the government's Pensions Regulator.

Speaking at a National Association of Pension Funds conference in London yesterday, Darran Burton, head of defined-contribution pensions at the Regulator, outlined the agency's current thinking on the effects of the government's auto-enrolment reforms.