The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has welcomed chairman of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA) Paul Myners' reiteration of assurances previously given by the government on personal accounts.

Mr Myners said that the scheme would not try to aggressively enter the market and try to take business from existing workplace pensions. He was responding to an open letter written to him by the ABI, which stated that the introduction of personal accounts could distort the pensions market.

"We are pleased that Paul Myners has reiterated assurances given by the government, and we look forward to them being confirmed in legislation. Personal accounts must be clearly focused on the target market of low and middle earners," Maggie Craig, the ABI's director of life and savings, commented.

"We believe that any state subsidy to Personal Accounts represents unfair competition, and we will be scrutinising relevant legislation carefully on this issue.

"The most important challenge is that of automatic enrolment into WPPs, to help employers increase participation in their existing good schemes, and we are working hard with the DWP to find a viable solution. Concrete proposals are needed soon. Paul Myners' hope that we can do this must become a reality, or the fundamental aim of this set of pension reforms - to get more savers, saving more - will not be achieved."

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