CP24/4: Further consultation on the regulatory framework for pensions dashboard service firms

Read CP24/4 PDF

Why we are consulting

We are proposing to include guidance in our Perimeter Guidance Manual (PERG) to help firms understand the scope of this new regulated activity and when FCA authorisation and permission is required. We are also inviting feedback on 2 proposed changes to our proposals in CP22/25. 

Who this is for

This consultation primarily affects firms interested in operating a pensions dashboard service and who will need to get the new regulatory permission.

It will also be of interest to:

• bodies that want to help their customers, members or other consumers, to find and use a pension dashboard service, for example, employers and charities 
• pension providers, trustees and administrators who will be supplying information to the dashboard services for their pension savers to view 
• individual consumers and bodies representing the interests of consumers 
• individuals and firms providing advice, guidance and information on pensions and retirement planning

Next steps

Online response form

We invite your feedback on our proposals, including the draft Handbook text in Appendix 1. Please send us your comments by 8 May 2024. 

We will consider feedback to both CP22/25 and this further consultation before finalising our full set of rules, our perimeter guidance and publishing a policy statement. Subject to consultation feedback and external dependencies, we aim to publish these in Q4 2024.

Background

Pension dashboards will be secure digital interfaces that allow consumers to find their pensions and to view basic information about them.

The Government has worked for some time to progress its pensions dashboards initiative.

It has created the legislative framework and tasked the Money and Pensions Service’s delivery programme, the Pensions Dashboards Programme, with setting standards for how dashboards should be delivered.

To ensure an appropriate degree of consumer protection for users of private sector pensions dashboards, the Government recently amended the Regulated Activities Order (RAO) to bring the new activity of operating a Pensions Dashboard Service within our regulation.

Our consultation paper, CP22/25: Proposed regulatory framework for pensions dashboard service firms set out our proposed requirements for operators of pensions dashboard services.

Now that the new activity is defined in legislation, we propose to include guidance in our Perimeter Guidance Manual (PERG).

This guidance is designed to help firms understand the scope of this new regulated activity and when they will require permission to undertake it.