Salvus Master Trust has been acquired by fintech firm Smarterly for an undisclosed sum in the first master trust acquisition since the introduction of The Pensions Regulator’s (TPR) authorisation regime.

Following the acquisition, Smarterly now has 70,000 customers and £200m assets under management.

The savings of existing Salvus members will “continue to be safe and secure”, according to Smarterly.

Salvus founder, Steve Goddard, said that the deal would “take Salvus to the next level”.

“I look forward to working with Smarterly and developing the technology so that Salvus employers and members alike can benefit from the fintech revolution,” he added.

The acquisition will allow Smarterly to become the first pension provider to offer “fully rounded digital wealth savings proposition in the workplace” and the firm hopes that the deal will see the platform “develop a ‘next generation’ pensions proposition to make saving for retirement more engaging for all workers”.

It launched its workplace savings platform in 2017 and has over 100 “large” employers, including Aon and Samsung, promoting it, with its current proposition geared around individual savings accounts (ISAs).

Commenting on the deal, Smarterly founder, Ben Pollard, said: “Our corporate clients have been telling us they want to see more innovation with workplace savings and to make pensions more engaging, much like we have been doing with the Smarterly workplace ISA platform.

“We now intend to use our tech to help employee benefit consultants and their clients better engage with employees and to make pensions more engaging."

TPR’s master trust authorisation regime thinned the market down from 90 to 38 master trusts by raising the regulatory bar, and this represents the first acquisition since its introduction.

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