TPR and FCA to launch joint pensions strategy
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are to produce a joint strategy on how they will collaborate to regulate the sector over the next decade.
The watchdogs will seek to develop a collective on the current landscape, their regulatory remits, and other key areas of focus for the coming years.
The strategy will be informed by three stakeholder events in London, Edinburgh and Manchester during the spring, as well as the FCA's Retirement Outcomes Review, the ‘TPR Future' program, the Work and Pensions Committee's pension freedoms inquiry, and the Department for Work and Pensions ‘ auto-enrolment review.
The strategy is partly in response to change over the previous few years, including the introduction of the pension freedoms in 2015.
In a statement, the FCA said: "As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure the sector works well for consumers and workplace pension savers, we are working together on a pensions strategy which will look at how we will work together, and with stakeholders, in the coming years."
Barnett Waddingham senior consultant Malcolm McLean welcomed the collaboration, but questioned whether the regulators needed to be combined into a "super regulator".
"There are clear areas of overlap and duplication between the two bodies that can sometimes create delays and a degree of confusion and uncertainty for stakeholders," he said. "It is important that, wherever possible, these sorts of problems are eliminated or at least minimised going forward.
"On the same theme, the question must be asked whether at some point the regulatory process could be better addressed by having a single regulator. There may be practical difficulties of scale which preclude this happening but, on the surface, a super regulator combining all the functions under one roof has much to commend it."
A further webinar will also be held to gather feedback from those unable to attend the three stakeholder sessions.
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