Fintech company PensionBee is working on integrating with banks and money apps, ahead of industry plans to create a pension dashboard.
The pension consolidator said today (4 September) its existing clients are now able to see their live pension balance within the money app Yolt, an app with more than 300,000 registered UK users.
The firm said Yolt was the first personal finance app to show its customers their live pension balance alongside other financial accounts such as their bank account, credit cards and Isa accounts.
Clare Reilly, head of corporate development at PensionBee, called the integration with Yolt a "game-changer for UK pension savers, who have sadly been left languishing in the 20th century for far too long".
She said: "Today’s announcement firmly establishes pensions as part of the open banking revolution; pension balances should be on smartphones – and not in a drawer.
"Logging into Yolt to manage your entire financial universe is the future that pension savers have been waiting for."
PensionBee said the integration came off the back of speculation that the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) may abandon the pensions dashboard.
It had emerged in July secretary of state Esther McVey has made moves to kill off the project, saying the service should not be provided by the state.
However, a Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) spokesperson dismissed the reports soon after, saying they amounted to no more than "speculation and rumour".
The pension dashboard, which is due to launch in 2019, is to allow savers to see all of their retirement pots in one place at the same time, giving them a greater awareness of their assets and how to plan for their retirement.
Meanwhile, September has been identified by some firms as the cut-off point by which the government must have published its feasibility study, which sets out the data requirement for providers, or the dashboard may not launch in time to meet its deadline.
Frank Jan Risseeuw, chief executive of Yolt, said: "Our vision is to simplify your finances by building Yolt to be the only money app you need on your phone, so this integration with PensionBee is the natural next step for us on this journey.
"We want to give our users a holistic look at their finances and enabling them to see the value of their pension pot – anywhere and at any time – is a key part of this."
maria.espadinha@ft.com
