This week in the pension world brought plenty of notable news, with a number of key updates from the government and industry.

Wednesday (30 April) marked the first pension dashboard connect-by date for larger schemes, and the number of providers connected has continued to grow since.

WTW also released research showing that UK pension schemes expect a surge in member interest once the dashboards go live.

This was not the only news on pensions dashboards this week as a few days before the connect by date Origo Dashboards Connector confirmed it’s now fully integrated with the government’s pensions dashboards ecosystem, making big strides in the digital push.

The government has also been providing further clarity ahead of the Pension Schemes Bill, as the government confirmed it will lay out legislation this autumn to extend collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes, as part of its ongoing effort to broaden retirement options.

The government also shared plans to consider changes to the Pensions Protection Fund (PPF) compensation framework, including the issue of pre-1997 indexation as well as announcing plans to consult on measures to improve scheme governance later this year.

At the same time, however, the impact of Trump’s trade tariffs has been starting to make waves. LCP warned that master trust members should prepare for "higher levels of volatility" as funds continue to increase overseas equity allocations during their growth phases.

In addition to this, Isio suggested that many European pension schemes are now rethinking their foreign exchange (FX) trading following the introduction of US President Donald Trump's tariffs, as those holding US assets face an "unprecedented challenge".

Meanwhile, XPS released fresh figures showing a boost in pension transfer activity, despite transfer values remaining at a record low.

This research was released alongside industry rankings on transfer times, which awarded several pension companies and funds a gold rating.

But delays in pension transfers remain a key concern. PensionBee's latest research highlighted growing frustration with these delays and argued that a 10-day Pension Switch Guarantee is "urgently needed".

Meanwhile, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) kept busy this week with the release of its podcast on the new value for money framework in collaboration with the Financial Conduct Authority, as well as its 2025 Annual Defined Benefit (DB) Funding Statement.

The industry welcomed the DB Funding Code clarifications from TPR that were part of its annual funding statement, noting that the clarifications around covenant and trustee's assessment of supportable risk were “particularly helpful”.

On the investment front, this week also saw Scottish Widows and Future Growth Capital launch long-term asset funds (LTAFs).

This increase in LTAFs could signal a rising appetite from pension schemes for more long-term, illiquid investments and aligns with the government's and regulators' broader goals of ‘unlocking’ pension capital for UK growth.

Along these lines of supporting the agenda of pension fund investment in UK growth, the Work and Pensions Committee announced plans to question pension industry leaders and finance think tanks on pension funds’ UK investments and how to boost them.

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