The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been urged to “go further” on its proposed pensions dashboards post-view proposals, in order to help ensure savers are fully supported throughout their full dashboards journey.

The FCA launched a further consultation on the regulatory framework for pensions dashboard service firms in March, after the government amended the Regulated Activities Order (RAO) to bring the activity of operating a pensions dashboards service within its regulation.

In particular, the FCA is seeking views on its plans to include guidance in its Perimeter Guidance Manual (PERG) to help firms understand the scope of this new regulated activity and when FCA authorisation and permission is required, as well as two "substantive" changes to the regulatory framework.

In its response, however, the Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) said that the FCA needs to take the dashboard project further, arguing that dashboards must “have the ability to fully support consumers in their decision making to enable them to achieve better outcomes”.

Given this, it said that the proposed choices must be expanded at the outset, or be expanded within a relatively short period of time, to ensure that this is achievable.

In addition to this, the SPP warned that there is a risk to the success of dashboards if the information consumers are presented with on first usage is limited, arguing that limited information is unlikely to incentivise users to return, with engagement levels likely to remain low.

SPP Financial Services Regulation Committee chair, Jasmine Smiley, said “Those who use the dashboards will quickly become frustrated if they are presented with lots of information but are provided with little to aid their decision-making beyond the permitted (and incredibly limited) signposting contained within the FCA’s proposals.

"The provision of information with very limited support is highly unlikely to incentivise users to return.”

This was echoed by Aegon pensions director, Steven Cameron, who argued that while dashboards have the potential to create a step change in pension engagement, regulation should allow firms with appropriate permissions to support individuals not just to view their pensions data but crucially to make informed decisions and act on them.

He stated: “While the government has ruled out individuals undertaking transactions on pension dashboards, the FCA regulatory framework will determine how easy or hard it will be for individuals, particularly if not seeking advice, to take that ‘next step’ from viewing data to taking action.

“We appreciate that pension dashboards are a new concept and the FCA must protect consumers from scammers. But where regulated firms are involved, the Consumer Duty adds further regulatory protections to ensure good outcomes.

"Often, consumers need protecting from their own inertia and if taking action is too complex or daunting, this can lead to poorer outcomes.

“We are concerned about the sharp break in the journey when moving from dashboard to other transactional services a firm may offer.

"We’d like the FCA to explore allowing consumers to extract data from both ‘view’ and ‘post-view’ services in a form which could then be used in conjunction with ‘off dashboard’ services offered by advisers and other firms with appropriate regulatory permissions."

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