Altus and ITM advance to testing pension dashboard

The two firms said their transition to the development stage shows the “significant progress made” by the government programme, with dashboards “on-track” and working towards connecting the first group of staged data providers in 2023.

The Department for Work and Pensions set out the phased roll out of pensions dashboards earlier this year in a consultation. 

Dashboards will give consumers greater access to their previous pension pots, and are tipped to prompt more people to seek professional advice in order to navigate the complexities of their pension history.

The testing stage will see Altus’ and ITM’s digital architecture connected using artificial data to start with, before moving on to real data with the cooperation of volunteer pension providers.

“This phase will see the connection and flow of data undergo rigorous testing, ensuring its fit for purpose and identifying protocol to prepare other providers to connect,” the two firms said in an announcement today (April 25).

Consultancy Altus and technology provider ITM first joined forces in November in a bid to become the industry’s first commercial pensions dashboards Integrated Service Provider (ISP) with an open-market connection to pensions dashboards. The firms’ joint solution is called ‘Pension Fusion’.

“Over the past few months, we have worked very closely with the PDP and we are delighted to be confirmed as first alpha participants,” said Maurice Titley, ITM’s chief innovation officer. 

She added that the firms’ solution is the “most advanced” in the industry and is ready to connect pension providers to the pensions dashboards.

Ben Cocks, a director at Altus, said pooling resources has enabled both firms to develop a straightforward route to compliance. 

“This announcement proves that our dashboard connection solution is the cornerstone of a successful rollout of the pensions dashboard,” he said.

ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com