The Pensions Administration Standards Association (Pasa) will lead the development of conventions for matching pensions dashboards users with their pensions, alongside the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) and the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

The organisations will work to devise solutions in producing data matching conventions that will be adoptable for the entire pensions sector.

They will build on existing data matching approaches, align thinking with the small pots working group, and ensure an industry-wide adoptability.

Commenting on the announcement, Pasa chair, Kim Gubler, said: “Correctly matching users to schemes’ administration records is critical for dashboards success.

“As the industry administration standards body, it makes sense for Pasa to lead on developing various data matching conventions for trustees to adopt as they wish.”

Schemes and providers will have to decide what combination of personal data is best for them to match pensions to the dashboards, although there are concerns that some will set their criteria too high or too low.

Therefore, schemes are looking for industry-wide conventions that they can adopt to strike the right balance.

Pasa, PLSA and ABI will also work with The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the Financial Conduct Authority to ensure the conventions align with their expected regimes for dashboards regulation, and 11 providers of pension administration software.

However, Pasa warned that the standard data matching conventions will not solve the matching challenge on their own and urged trustees to work their suppliers to implement or build on existing technology/data cleansing solutions.

The organisations are hoping to have the initial conventions ready for alpha testing firms to test in early 2022, with beta testing expected in later 2022.

By the end of the beta testing phase, the finalised suite of industry-wide conventions should be ready for schemes and providers to select from.

“For pensions dashboards to fulfil their transformational potential, users must be able to find their pensions and be confident in the results,” commented ABI long-term savings policy director, Yvonne Braun.

“That means developing an approach to matching that works for consumers and can work across the industry, and it’s up to our industry to make that happen.”

TPR executive director of regulatory policy, analysis and advice, David Fairs, added: “We welcome this innovative industry collaboration. How to best match savers to all their pots through pensions dashboards will be a key decision for trustees.

“The creation of industry conventions should provide consistency and reassure trustees they are taking a sensible approach to complying with their dashboards duties.”

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