Our priorities and approach – an update from the Pensions Regulator
Our recently published corporate plan identifies 10 priorities for the period up to 2019. It outlines how we will retain a flexible approach, allowing us to adapt to a changing pensions landscape and help ensure savers receive the retirement income they expect.
Automatic enrolment has brought workplace pensions into focus for millions more people, and so our regulatory reach now goes beyond trustees to employers who have duties to enrol their staff into a pension scheme. We expect those schemes to be well run and to deliver good outcomes.
Two of our specific priorities are protecting consumers from poorly governed mastertrusts and working with the industry on a pensions dashboard
Against a backdrop of intense public scrutiny of pensions and retirement saving, we are taking bolder steps to address emerging risks, such as cyber crime and the developing defined contribution market.
We will be more innovative in the support we give trustees, sponsoring employers and members.
Two of our specific priorities are protecting consumers from poorly governed mastertrusts and working with the industry on a pensions dashboard.
Tackling mastertrusts
To address possible issues with the quality and viability of some mastertrusts, we are adapting our independent mastertrust assurance framework with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales to incorporate the new principles of our DC code. This will promote good governance and help trustees of mastertrusts understand what they need to do.
Some have suggested making the existing MTA framework mandatory, but this alone would not address the risks relating to sustainability and scalability that we have identified.
So we are working with the Department for Work and Pensions and Financial Conduct Authority to see how else these risks can be mitigated. It will then be a matter for government to decide if legislation is required.
We believe well-run multi-employer schemes are a good choice for employers as they look to meet their workplace pension duties. We will continue to guide employers to such schemes; these include group personal pensions run by FCA-authorised providers and mastertrusts with assurance.
In addition to our list of mastertrusts with assurance, this week we announced plans to publish a list of GPPs open to all employers who wish to use them to comply with auto-enrolment.
Pensions dashboard
We want to explore how we can further help scheme members to engage with pensions and help themselves. A so-called pensions dashboard is one way to do this.
It is a big challenge, but we will work with government and the FCA to see how the industry can provide the information members need to understand what savings they have for retirement.
We believe a single, digital portal could help address the challenges that many people face in understanding what they have saved and what income it may generate in later life.
Lesley Titcomb is chief executive at the Pensions Regulator