UK – Trustees are doing a "good job" the chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds, Terry Faulkner, said today.

Faulkner told the NAPF’s annual conference in Glasgow that "collectively" trustees were competent. But he said that he did not personally see "any reason" why they should be paid.

He also commented on potential conflicts on interest for company directors acting as trustees. "Conflicts of interests are virtually everywhere. I am not sure that financial directors are all in trustee boards." He added: "Most people working in corporate UK are good people."

As well as his role at the NAPF, Faulkner is head of pensions at packaging group Rexam.

He called on the government to communicate more effectively with the pensions industry.

He said there were two main issues on the agenda – the financial ruin of Equitable Life and steel firm ASW, which has gone bust leaving its pensioners out of pocket.

Faulkner argued that in the past the UK’s occupational pension system was the "envy" of its European counterparts. He added that he did not see compulsion as a solution - voluntary corporate schemes had worked in the past and could still work in the future.