The Royal Mail Collective Pension Plan, which officially launched on 7 October, will be delivered using the EQ Retirement Solutions’ (EQRS) Compendia platform, it has confirmed.

Initially announced in 2018, the Royal Mail Collective Plan became the UK's first CDC scheme in 2023 after passing The Pensions Regulator's (TPR) assessment process, marking a "milestone" moment for the industry.

Since its official launch in October, the group has made a number of key appointments to the new CDC scheme, including appointing the Pension Service Centre, an in-house administration team at Royal Mail to provide administration to the Collective Plan.

However, to enable PSC to provide the service they required a system that was new to the CDC market.

The EQRS Compendia platform was therefore chosen to ensure efficiency through digitisation, member self-service capabilities and a seamless and smooth user experience.

The platform was designed to offer a range of pensions functionality, actions, and content, helping to drive efficiencies through process automation and comprehensive access to management information.

Commenting on the news, EQ Retirement Solutions CEO, Duncan Watson, said: “We’re immensely proud to be part of this industry first project in partnership with PSC.

"This represents the culmination of many months of collaboration between our team and PSC, having to navigate complexities and challenges of implementing a completely new type of scheme.

"This demonstrates how EQ Retirement Solutions adapt and innovate as the world of pensions evolves, supporting traditional and new forms of pension provision.”

Adding to this, Royal Mail head of pension services, Michael Mayall, said “The launch of the Collective Plan is a truly historic moment for UK pensions.

"Our teams, along with the Collective Plan’s trustee executive, have worked incredibly hard together to get us to this point. We are now ready to deliver the first-class service to plan members, using EQ’s innovative Compendia system.”

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