Smart Pension has welcomed the Government’s new fintech strategy, unveiled this week. The suite of new measures includes automating regulatory compliance, new industry standards which will make it easier and cheaper for financial service providers to partner, as well as a taskforce to manage cryptoassets while harnessing the underlying technologies they use such as blockchain.
The government also announced a so-called ‘Fintech Bridge’ trade agreement with Australia, which will allow British fintechs to sell their products and services there.
Will Wynne, co-founder and MD of the automated workplace pension said: “We totally support the new strategy and think it’s vitally important that the Government backs British fintechs. Initiatives such as ‘shared platforms’ should in theory help to take us one step closer to the pensions dashboard.
“While regulating cryptoassets is prudent, harnessing the technology behind them is inspired. We’re already developing future products using blockchain, a technology we believe will be critical in transforming the way the pensions industry operates to make retirement planning interactive and relevant to a new generation of savers.
“The agreement with Australia which includes promoting regulatory cooperation will be interesting. Australia is 20 years ahead of us on auto enrolment and already has fintech tools which allow savers to undertake a variety of sophisticated processes, including consolidating all their pension pots into one place using their phone.
“We’re a long way from that moment in the UK, but this week’s strategy could be the catalyst for change that we want.”
Smart Pension now runs workplace pensions for almost half a million savers and has recently launched its secure Alexa skill, which enables members to ask their device to display their savings balance and generate reports on their pension contributions in real time. It also allows them to make instant changes to their employee contribution percentage.
The firm’s award-winning, highly automated platform harnesses time-saving applications to allow fast, seamless auto enrolment with a sign-up and onboarding process that takes just a few minutes from start to finish. It is free to employers and has an AMC-only charging structure for members that is transparent with no upfront or hidden costs.
It is MAF-accredited and has been awarded a 5-star Defaqto rating for the last three years. In June 2017 it was named as Fintech Innovation of the Year and overall winner in the Digital Leaders 100 Awards.
ABOUT SMART PENSION:
Smart Pension is an award-winning, MAF-accredited online auto enrolment provider. It was co-founded in 2014 by Andrew Evans, CEO, and Will Wynne, Managing Director, and launched in May 2015. Its Master Trust is overseen by professional trustees with decades of experience supervising large pension schemes. Smart Pension has a 5 star rating from Defaqto in the auto enrolment category. Smart Pension is the fastest auto enrolment platform on the market to sign up with and advisers and employers can use it for free – there are no upfront or ongoing charges for companies or their advisers. LGIM took a minority stake in the digital pension platform in 2016, part of a move by LGIM to invest in high-achieving, innovative technology that has a positive impact on the wider UK economy. In June 2017 it was named Fintech Innovation of the Year and overall winner in the Digital Leaders 100 awards.