The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a consultation on requirements for pension providers ahead of the launch of pensions dashboards, highlighting provider compliance as "an essential component" to making dashboards a reality.

Under the proposals, pension providers would be required to complete connection of their personal and stakeholder pension schemes to the Money and Pension Services' (Maps) digital architecture, in line with Maps' connection, security and technical standards.

They would also be required to be ready to receive requests to find pensions, search records for data matches and be ready to return view data to pensions dashboards.

The rules are under consultation until 8 April 2022, with the feedback to inform the FCA’s ongoing work to support pension dashboards, as well as the final regulations.

The FCA confirmed that it expects to publish its policy statement and finalised handbook rules in autumn 2022, alongside or shortly after parliament approves the government’s regulations for trustees and managers of occupational pension schemes and dashboard services.

The government consultation on the regulations for occupational pension schemes is still ongoing, with further details on the expected dashboards standards published by the Pensions Dashboards Programme to support this.

In addition to the current consultation, the FCA confirmed that it will consult separately on the regulatory framework for the operators of qualifying pensions dashboard services (QPDS) “later this year”.

FCA executive director of markets, Sarah Pritchard, commented: "We are one of many organisations involved in making the pensions dashboards a reality, and we are working closely with the government and others in support of their rollout.

“We hope that the dashboards are successful in making it easier for consumers to access and engage more pro-actively with their pensions and support decision making on retirement planning."

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