Master trust authorisation has been dubbed a "mammoth task" because of the compliance involved.
Adrian Boulding, director of policy at Now: Pensions, is preparing to submit the workplace pension provider's application with The Pensions Regulator (TPR) in early 2019.
He said he expects the process to be a "weighty tome".
He said: "The exercise has been rather like standing in front of a huge mirror and painting our own self portrait.
"Except that TPR don't want the usual artist's embellishments, they want a ‘warts and all’ story, rather like the famous portraitist Joseph Wright used to paint, often to the annoyance of those who had commissioned him.
"Without a shadow of doubt, it's been a worthwhile process. We have tightened existing processes throughout the business and have increased the number of controls we use to monitor that the whole engine is ticking over nicely.
"But the regulator want to hear from more than just us so we've hired outside experts to provide independent assurance that the picture really is as beautiful as we've painted."
Master trusts have until the end of March 2019 to either apply for authorisation with TPR and comply with the new rules or to exit the market altogether.
Under the new rules master trusts will need to hold enough capital to cover 'worst-case scenario' costs such as transferring pension members to another scheme or winding up without charging members.
Gregg McClymont, director of policy at B&CE, provider of The People’s Pension, agreed the work required to submit an application was "daunting as it should be, and the requirements stringent".
However, he said The People’s Pension had supported authorisation from the outset, saying it saw tougher regulation of master trusts as "critical to protecting consumers and delivering better retirement outcomes".
Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, said the new rules would "shake up the market, making master trusts stronger and members better protected".
She added: "But it’s likely that by the end of 2019 the number of master trusts could easily have halved compared to the start of 2018."
In total, 90 master trusts have been identified in the market, from which three have exited and 32 have triggered their exit.
But as FTAdviser reported in December only one of the remaining 55 workplace schemes in line for authorisation has applied since the window opened two months ago.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
