16 January 2019
The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA), the independent body dedicated to driving up standards in pensions administration, launched its first round of data guidance at the second PASA Annual Administration Conference, held in London yesterday.
Designed as a practical means of helping administrators, trustees and employers assess the quality of their data and, where necessary, take appropriate action to address any issues raised, the guidance covers three key areas; assessment of data quality; managing risk and meeting compliance and impact assessment.
Geraldine Brassett, Chair of the PASA Data Guidance Working Group commented “At PASA, we encourage schemes to consider data cleanse exercises as an investment rather than additional cost. If done well, exercises can have a measurable impact on the long-term running of a scheme, so it’s about far more than ‘just’ risk and governance management. Being clear on objectives for any cleanse is integral to any plan to ensure return on investment. Our guidance provides practical tools to help people fully understand where issues lie and articulate what they want to achieve, before setting out the steps they should follow to achieve their goals.”
Maurice Titley of ITM, PASA Knowledge Partner for Data Management added: “Good quality data is at the heart of every well-run pension scheme, and has an incredibly important role to play in both strategic scheme objectives and day-to-day administration. That’s why we’re so happy to give our expert insight into the production of PASA’s guidance. It’s been encouraging to see data being driven up the trustee agenda by factors like GDPR and The Pensions Regulator’s stronger requirements on common and scheme specific data reporting. And with the planned introduction of dashboard in the pipeline, the continued march towards de-risking and, for some schemes, GMP equalisation, having
data on the agenda is more important than ever”.
David Fairs, Executive Director of Regulatory Policy at The Pensions Regulator said: “We welcome the publication of PASA’s data guidance which provides trustees and administrators with the practical support they need to achieve data quality standards, and aligns with our expectations of them. We plan to raise awareness of this guidance to trustees by signposting via our website, and where appropriate, in communications to trustees regarding data quality.”
The conference, held in Plaisterer’s Hall in London, saw PASA joined by a range of speakers from across the industry to discuss key issues dominating the current administration landscape. Kim Brown, Head of Master Trust Authorisation and Supervision at The Pensions Regulator (TPR) told conference that they were focussing on
dministration more than ever before. Brown stressed that a two-way dialogue between trustees and administrators is key for trustees to have the knowledge and understanding needed to effectively oversee administration operations.
The conference also featured speakers from Arc Pensions Law, Barnett Waddingham, Capita
Employee Solutions, Equiniti, ITM, Moneyhub, pinBox Solutions Pte, Premier, Quietroom, Scottish Widows, Smart Pension and Veratta Ltd, as well as members of the PASA Committees and Board.
To view PASA’s Data Guidance in full, click here
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