UK pensions minister Steve Webb warned on Thursday he would “name and shame” pension providers who enrol customers into “dodgy old schemes” with high costs and low-quality standards. He also singled out insurer Aviva, one of the big pension providers, for praise after it became the first to pledge not to do this.

With millions of people set to be automatically enrolled into company pensions over the next six years, under the government's 2012 reforms, industry commentators have warned that thousands of them might be put into old, low-quality legacy schemes.