The UK’s Pensions Dashboards Programme continues to gather pace. Find out what the recently released draft technical standards mean for the industry and what comes next.
Bravura welcomes the updated technical standards from the UK’s Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP), which builds momentum in six areas as the industry prepares for the first connection deadlines in just seven months’ time (April ’25).
We spoke with Dima Dimitrova, Bravura’s modular product manager, to find out what these standards mean, what will come next for data providers (schemes, third party administrators (TPAs), Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) and pension providers), and how to ensure you select the correct Integrated Service Provider (ISP) when connecting to the PDP’s Central Digital Architecture (CDA).
Tell us a bit about what the technical standards are and what they cover?
Dima Dimitrova (DD): “The technical standards are what pension providers, schemes, and dashboard providers will use to interface with the central technical architecture and/or each other.
“They work alongside the data standards, which set out the data formatting requirements for returning pensions data. While compliance with these standards – as well as the code of connection and reporting standards – is mandatory for pension providers, schemes and dashboards providers, it’s worth noting that the current standards are not final until approved by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – expected later this year.
“Ultimately, these standards provide the basis for communication and connectivity across the pensions dashboards ecosystem. They provide a common set of connection rules for pension providers and schemes, determining how parties are to interact and communicate with the central digital architecture and each other.
“The standards cover six main areas of coverage: connectivity mechanisms; protocols for authorising the sharing of information; the methodology for the generation of pension identifiers, tokens, globally unique identifiers used in ecosystem transactions; the rules for registration of pension identifiers for pensions found; definitions of APIs to be used by ecosystem participants; and details of how the APIs must be used during the expected functioning of the ecosystem.”
What’s next?
DD: “The standards are currently in draft form. As per the PDP’s website (here), there are a number of areas of functionality that will be addressed in later versions of the technical standards. Nevertheless, Bravura’s ISP has already been adapted and enhanced to cater for the changes compared to the 2022 versions of the data and technical standards so that we are ready to start onboarding clients when PDP opens registration and technical connection to the CDA.
“While we await final confirmation of the standards, it’s vital pension providers confirm their connection plans (either directly or via an ISP provider), ensure that their admin and member data is cleaned and ready to receive find and view requests and start identifying pain points to ensure they are appropriately resourced ahead of onboarding.
“The connection deadlines posed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will come around very quickly (here) so we’re urging everyone required to be compliant with the regulation to press ahead with connection plans and not leave things to the final hour and get caught up in a last-minute sprint.”
If you were a scheme or pension provider, what three questions would you ask to ensure an ISP provider was the right fit?
DD: “There are lots of things to consider when selecting an ISP provider. For me, first and foremost, an ISP needs to be easily integrated into a provider, scheme, TPA or LGPS’s tech stack to save time and effort having to reconfigure this to every environment.
“Our ISP, for example, is built on open, API-based architecture which means it will seamlessly connect to all your relevant databases and processes, bringing everything together in one feed. It’s also important to recognise that not all providers and schemes – such as some LGPSs – will have API connectivity so, if this is the case, having the option to share your data via a specified file format such as a simple CSV in our case is crucial.
“What’s more, with potentially thousands if not millions of people using pensions dashboards, the solutions need to scale effortlessly so hosting is really important. This is where the cloud comes as it is built to flex without ramping up costs.
“Lastly, as we’re getting so close to the connection deadlines, schemes and providers need to be confident that their partner will be able to deliver. If schemes or providers aren’t PDP compliant by their connection date, they risk potentially hefty fines by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and/or Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), not to mention reputational damage. Does the ISP solution have a transparent and easy-to-follow onboarding process? What resources do they need from you to put that plan into action?
“These are just a few of the questions that I’d ask but there are so many more depending on what type of scheme or provider you are and what technology you are using. You should usually be able to find these out during a product demonstration. At Bravura, we regularly run these with clients and prospects, and they are great ways to help people understand how the solution works, as well as finding out if it meets their requirements.”
You can read more information about the Pensions Dashboards Programme here.
Connect to the PDP ecosystem with Bravura’s ISP
Our award-winning ISP offers a secure, scalable, and no-code solution for connecting to the UK’s pension dashboards. It enables fast implementation, ensures data security without storing identifiable information, and can scale effortlessly to handle large volumes of data requests. This allows providers to focus on their core business while seamlessly meeting regulatory requirements.
Find out more here.
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