An “overwhelming” majority (90 per cent) of pension providers regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expect to connect to the pensions dashboards ecosystem in line with the dates set out in the staging guidance, research from the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has revealed.

The research, carried out by Ipsos, revealed that large majorities of respondents were at least ‘very confident’ in meeting the requirements for connecting in line with their dates set out in Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance published in March 2024.

According to the survey, more than eight in 10 FCA-regulated providers surveyed said all their data used for matching people to their pensions on dashboards was held digitally.

There was also very high confidence in meeting requirements for how pension values must be calculated and how quickly providers must return data to dashboards, as 85 per cent of respondents reported they were very or completely confident.

The PDP said that the survey, which gathered views from 130 FCA-regulated pension providers between October and November 2024, should be viewed as a ‘snapshot’ of readiness at the end of 2024, around 6 months ahead of the first connection date in guidance.

“This snapshot on readiness provides a valuable sense of preparations for connection to the dashboards ecosystem,” Money and Pensions Service CEO, Oliver Morley, said.

“It also shows the effectiveness of the flexible approach taken to setting out connection dates in guidance."

Morley also clarified that whilst not all volunteer participants will have connected by 30 April, the regulators will not be taking action against any pension provider or scheme unable to meet their dates solely because of this at the current time.

“We are confident that we are on course to ensure all pension providers and schemes in scope can connect by 31 October 2026," he added. "This will bring us closer to making dashboards available and helping people plan for retirement.”

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