Introduction
June's general election was somewhat of a car crash, giving no one party any clear majority and causing no small amount of consternation among Tory party faithful, many of whom lost their seats.
With the departure of former pensions minister Richard Harrington to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as part of Theresa May’s cabinet reshuffle, the pensions industry is facing yet another merry-go-round of willing but ineffective pensions ministers.
Add to this the departure of Simon Kirby, former Treasury minister who was sponsoring the creation of a pensions dashboard, after he lost his seat, and it is unsurprising that the financial services industry is now expressing fears that the long-awaited dashboard may get kicked into the long grass.
Natanje Holt, retirement specialist for Bravura Solutions, comments: "The prototype for this vital project has been very well received but the snap election so soon after the completion of the first phase has raised question marks about the ability of the power that be to see it through to completion."
But developments so far have been positive, with a working prototype developed, good industry participation from many providers and schemes and strong progress from the fintech providers providing the underlying functionality.
The litmus test, of course, is whether it will really do what it promises to when it is launched in 2019.
Commentators in this guide: Rob Yuille, head of retirement policy for the Association of British Insurers; Duncan Howorth, chairman for ITM; Andy Kirby, managing director of The Pensions Portal; Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon; Philip Brown, head of policy at LV=; Nigel Tinsley, pensions director at BAE Systems; Richard Nuttall, head of compliance policy, and Mark Greenwood, regulatory policy manager for SimplyBiz; Fiona Tait, technical director for Intelligent Pensions; John Kelly, consultant at Mattioli Woods; Natanje Holt, retirement specialist for Bravura Solutions; and Paul Pettitt, managing director of Origo.
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
