One of the recommendations of the Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR) in March, was the bringing together of industry and consumer representatives to develop a customer-friendly digital interface that displays an individual’s pension savings in one place by 2019.
Next phase
Speaking at the launch of its white paper on Thursday, outlining how the dashboard can be created, ABI director of policy, long term savings and protection, Yvonne Braun explained that the ABI believes that it is best placed to drive forward the project’s delivery.
Until now, the Pension Finder Working Group, a collaboration of 14 organisations including the Money Advice Service and the ABI, has been working on the dashboard project.
The ABI now wants to work with wider industry; including trust based and public sector pension schemes, to ensure that as many people as possible can benefit from the dashboard, with support from the whole market.
Foundations laid
Braun said: “The Pensions Finder project has laid the foundation for delivering this crucial project and its momentum must continue. As a project that is expected to be industry-led and funded, we believe the ABI is best placed to take forward the next phase to deliver the pensions dashboard.
“The ABI has an unparalleled record of delivering complex, industry-led projects in partnership with government, such as FloodRe to ensure affordable flood insurance for households at high risk, and MedCo, to protect customers against unscrupulous claims management companies. The pension dashboard should be next on the list.
“We know we cannot do this alone. We want to work with Government and the wider industry so the dashboard can help customers with public sector pensions and those in trust based schemes.
“Given that people are forecast to have 11 different jobs during their working life, the pension dashboard is a critical piece of infrastructure to empower customers and prepare them for an ever increasing retirement.”
Informed decision makers
Caroline Rookes, chief executive of the Money Advice Service, which had led the Pension Finder Working Group up to now, said: “Pension provision has changed significantly over recent years and it is more important than ever that individuals make good decisions so their money lasts for the full length of their retirement.
“We know that online banking has empowered people to engage with their money more regularly. We hope that being able to keep track of their pension savings in a single digital place will ensure that people are fully informed and can make decisions about their future savings in a similar way.
“It is vital that consumers remain at the heart of this project. It will also be important for industry, consumer bodies and Government to continue to collaborate and maintain momentum for this project to ensure consumers can access their pensions data by 2019.”
