Origo, the industry’s eCommerce standards and services body, today (23 September) announced its plans to help the industry create a pension register service for the public.
It pointed out that UK consumers with pensions across multiple providers have no secure, simple, digital and automated means of viewing their total pensions worth at present.
This project from the not-for-profit industry body will offer a database and hub to help firms and other bodies deliver a consumer ‘pensions dashboard’.
There are 15-20 organisations working with Origo at present on this, and all the data will be standardised, although presentation of the dashboards for each company will be unique.
Origo said that the European Commission, the UK government, the Financial Conduct Authority and a number of industry bodies and providers are actively promoting and supporting the idea of a pensions dashboard.
Paul Pettitt, Origo’s managing director, explained that the Pension Register Service will create a shared index that can be used by government agencies and companies (pension providers, platforms, third party administrators, employers, banks, tracing services) to provide their own dashboard capability direct to consumers.
“The high level of interest in the industry for developing dashboard-style access to aggregated pension information for consumers in one place has been ongoing, but now appears to be a higher priority for government and activity is likely to pick up pace.
“Working with the industry, Origo will be able to develop a service and grow the database along the lines that both the Department of Work and Pensions and the Financial Conduct Authority have outlined.”
Mr Pettitt stated that clear and easily accessible front-end design will be crucial for consumers, while a “robust back-end engine” is also required to be capable of connecting across a range of financial services products.
“Origo is also experienced in managing legal frameworks to enable secure services, which would be a crucial part of making a register service work. There is a big drive for the government and regulator to make this happen so people can access pension freedoms.”
Kate Smith, regulatory strategy manager at Aegon, added that it believes this is a viable and innovative alternative to the previous government’s ‘pot follows member’ initiative which should dramatically improve the public’s engagement with their pensions.
“Turning the pension dashboard into reality will be a massive undertaking and it’s essential that one organisation takes the lead, for example in setting technology common standards which can be used by the pension industry.”
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
