Dashboard coalition disbands amid concerns over high regulatory bar

Speaking to the Work and Pensions Committee earlier this month, Richard Smith, an independent consultant and voluntary chair of the coalition, told MPs that he did not think Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulated, private sector dashboards would ever happen under the current planned framework.

“Frankly, it breaks my heart to share my view,” he said. “I don’t think, even though your constituents desperately need and want them, that we’re going to see any FCA-regulated dashboards.”

He cited a recent LinkedIn poll of industry professionals that showed that around 40% of people did not think private sector dashboards will ever happen.

In an interview with Daniela Silcock, an independent pensions researcher, on 14 March, Smith expanded on his concern, explaining: “The regulatory bar is very high and too uncertain. Firms want to do them, but they can’t make a business case with so much uncertainty.

“I led a group of 15 firms who all wanted to do it, but none could commit without a clear timeline. Government keeps saying they’ll happen, but it’s industry which must deliver them, and, currently, industry can’t justify the investment.”

The Pensions Dashboards Operators Coalition consisted of 15 organisations that were exploring building their own dashboards. These included Aviva, Fidelity, Just Group, Legal & General, Mercer, Mintago, Moneybox, MoneyHelper, Moneyhub, NatWest Cushon, Penny, Pension Lab, Scottish Widows, Smart Pension, and Standard Life.

Standard Life has been working on its own dashboard for several years in partnership with Moneyhub, and presented a working model of its offering to MPs last week. Separately, Scottish Widows and Moneybox have been working on their own dashboard.

However, Brian Byrnes, head of personal finance at Moneybox, told the Work and Pensions Committee that the way the FCA was planning to regulate private sector dashboards was “incredibly restrictive and onerous”.

Also giving evidence to the committee, Kim Gubler, chair of the Pensions Administration Standards Association, said many firms were “finding it very difficult to to create the business case” to create a working dashboard.

“We’ve got the commitment from the Pensions Dashboard Programme and the Department for Work and Pensions has said that private sector dashboards will happen, but we need to have more certainty for those organisations that would build them,” she said.

Without private sector dashboards, the sole platform available to the public would be the MoneyHelper dashboard offered by the Money and Pensions Service.

However, Smith has contended that behavioural barriers could affect adoption of this dashboard as people were generally more likely to engage with a pensions dashboard through a portal that they were already familiar with, such as a banking app.

He also voiced concern that a ‘display only’ approach, as currently planned, could create fear among consumers who realise they do not have enough retirement savings but are unsure of what to do about it.

Smith told MPs: “Private sector dashboards could enable you to click through and top up your contributions, and do something about an inadequate total estimated retirement income. I worry that, if we have an extended period of [just] MoneyHelper, we’re just creating more fear by showing people total incomes, which aren’t enough to live on, and not giving them the help to do something about it.”

The first deadline for connection to the dashboards ecosystem is at the end of April, and applies to defined contribution master trusts with 20,000 members or more, and annuity providers, personal pension providers and stakeholder pension providers with more than 5,000 members.