PENSIONSANDSAVINGS.COM

• The next stage for pension integration as KeyPay acquires pensionsync.
  
• Australian-based firm will take forward further development to help bring pensions administration into the modern era.  
• UK is in the dark ages on pensions technology relative to Australia and many other countries.
  
• Another vital step on the path to Making Pensions Digital.
  

I am pleased to let you know that KeyPay, a cloud-payroll and workplace management provider, has just acquired pensionsync.

Having joined pensionsync last year as Chair, to find the best way forward for further development of this important pension integration platform, I am delighted to hand on the baton to KeyPay, to ensure the necessary technical advancements for the next generation of pension provision. As an Australian-based firm, KeyPay is well aware of the benefits of digital integration.

It has been a pleasure working with the pensionsync team, seeing first-hand what a difference electronic data integration between pension providers and payroll can make to pensions administration. Most of the pensions industry is still in the dark ages when it comes to technological advances, but this must change if we are to make pensions work better for people and develop reliable dashboards.

The pensionsync team has built a unique and valuable platform, which offers exciting benefits to both payroll and pensions firms. CEO Will Lovegrove’s vision for this market helped to develop solutions for many of the most challenging problems plaguing pension data for decades. He has lifted this initiative off the ground, and addressed many of the hardest issues. Will and his team came from the music industry, where he developed successful software, and brought this knowledge from outside pensions to build new pension data integration software that helps users across all aspects of pensions. Digital integration can drive down the cost of administration, increase accuracy and security of data exchange and will ultimately benefit pension savers, as well as the payroll and pensions industry.

Led by myself and Will, pensionsync has established an industry project for ‘Making Pensions Digital’. KeyPay has been a part of this work, which included leading payroll and pension providers, industry groups, Regulators and consultants who are interested in the benefits of making pensions digital. This project has given us an in-depth understanding of the advantages of such data integration. Similar technology already exists and is in widespread use in other markets such as Australia, where the Government strongly encouraged common data standards and digital operations several years ago. In the UK, development has been far slower.

Thanks to pensionsync, the UK now also has data integration software which can drive the vital developments for the next generation of pension provision. It is inevitable that technical advances will catch up with pension auto-enrolment and data records and the Pensions Dashboard project will not succeed without reliable electronic data that customers can rely on.

KeyPay will develop the project further and I will continue to champion the need for improved use of technology, standardised processes and reliable data, which will reduce costs, increase accuracy and remove inefficiencies in pensions. All of which can then help make pensions work better for people and improve their retirement incomes.