UK pensions regulator to strengthen its authoritative grip

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) in the UK is taking steps to make sure pensions continue to deliver good outcomes for savers while strengthening its regulatory grip.

This comes as the nation’s pensions landscape is rapidly evolving towards a competitive marketplace of fewer, larger schemes representing different risks and opportunities for savers and the economy.

Faced with a new regulatory environment, TPR wants to engage differently with the market, and from April it is planning to create three new regulatory functions which protect, enhance and innovate in savers’ interests.

This includes regulatory compliance, which will aim to protect pension savers’ interests through the effective and efficient delivery of regulatory compliance services, targeting schemes and employers.

It will also add market oversight which will enhance the market through strategic engagement with schemes and others who influence pension savers’ outcomes, with a strong focus on delivering value for money and trusteeship.

Lastly, TPR will introduce a strategy, policy and analysis function using insight from its regulatory approach and elsewhere to evolve the regulatory framework and support market innovation in savers’ interests.

The new functions will be supported and enabled by essential functions: operations, digital, data and technology, and people.

TPR will recruit executive director roles for the new functions this spring, it announced.

Sarah Smart, chair of TPR, said: “We are moving from a fragmented pensions landscape of thousands of small schemes to an environment of fewer, larger schemes. That means we need to change our regulatory approach to protect savers in the future.”

Smart added that the market should expect the regulator to engage with it differently from now on.

She explained: “Our new structure means we will be swifter to address compliance failures and market-wide risks while being more dynamic in our industry engagement and bringing innovation to the fore.”

Nausicaa Delfas, chief executive officer of TPR, added that workplace pensions need to work for savers.

“Our organisational changes are about bringing our talented and capable colleagues together to protect, enhance and innovate in savers’ interests,” she said.

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