ViaNova Group and TEX complete ‘first of its kind’ live pension transfer

The ViaNova Working Group and The Investing and Saving Alliance (Tisa) Exchange (TEX) have completed a ‘first of its kind’ live pension transfer within the defined contribution (DC) occupational space, with WTW.

The initial request took 30 minutes, while the whole process for the ceding scheme took around six working days, which was described as a “significant saving” compared to the usual six-eight week transfer time.

The early adopters of the approach include the WTW Lifesight Master Trust and two large occupational DC schemes managed by Hargreaves Lansdown and Fidelity.

However, it is hoped that the approach will now be “readily adopted” in other areas, including defined benefit (DB) transfers.

The ViaNova initiative brings together schemes regulated by both the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and The Pensions Regulator (TPR), using open standard solutions with a common legal framework to streamline DC transfer processing.

TEX is responsible for the legal framework, managing and running the complete set of non-commercial contracts between parties that cover standards, service level agreements and matters of liability concerning all aspects of transfers.

The ViaNova group, meanwhile, will continue to look at ways in supporting the industry, including the use of DB transfers.

ViaNova Working Group co-chair and WTW systems development director, Andy Hussey, highlighted the completion of the first transaction as a “major milestone”, emphasising the benefits of working with all parties within the industry.

“Through the use of open standards, we can ensure that pension regulated schemes and the master trusts will be supported in the future as and when transfer regulations are introduced,” he continued.

“Our role in the industry is now to increase the number of adopters and build on the success of this new electronic transfer process.”

Echoing this, TEX chair, David Moffat, stated: “This is a major achievement for the industry and highlights the successful collaboration between product providers and third party administrators in the UK corporate pension industry with the TEX.”

Lifesight managing director, Fiona Matthews, recommended that all regulated DC pension schemes and master trusts sign up to the initiative to allow it to become “the much needed industry standard”.

“LifeSight is a strong advocate for enhancing members engagement and experience with their DC pension providers,” she continued.

“Achieving faster transfer processing for those wishing to consolidate their pensions is a significant milestone, and a welcome improvement in the industry.

“We would like to see each TPR-regulated DC pension scheme and master trust to sign up and enable this valuable improvement to become the much needed industry standard.”

Featured Post

Ten years of Government Digital

Ten years ago today the initial Beta of the National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD) went live for the first time. It was a collaboration between the Packaging Federation, the Environment Agency (EA) and Oxford based software house Solution 7. The beta was a ranging success with over 80% uptake and reducing the time to produce the key Q1 numbers by 6 weeks. The full case study is here.

It was my first full cycle Agile project management gig and Ben Bradshaw’s endorsement of it in Parliament, “an unusual piece of government IT in that has been successfully delivered on-time and to budget”, still fills me with pride. What we didn’t know in 2006 is that NPWD would align so closely to Digital by Default (DbD) to the point of being a pre-cursor for it.

The key principle behind Digital by Default, focus on the user need, was at the heart of the project and the resultant service. NPWD manages the evidence of recycling of packing waste and was initiated by, and largely directly paid for, by the industry users that had to prove that they had met their recycling obligations. Users, both industry and EA, were represented on the board and the project team consulted with recyclers, exporters, compliance schemes, the regulators and the producers on every feature delivered.

DbD services must also be transformational. NPWD was born out of the need to move away from a paper based process that was regularly the subject of fraud (the evidence of recycling was, almost literally, a blank cheque), requiring significant changes in the regulations e.g. moving to password based “electronic signatures” which were very radical at the time.

NPWD is still going strong; industry users rebelled against its planned replacement last year for not meeting their needs and being too expensive: the EA costs for running regimes like this are passed on to those being regulated.

At the time, we did an informal Digital by Default service assessment, NPWD came out quite well.  The only points where it might have failed is on the use of open source technology, as it uses MS .NET and SQL Server, use of GDS design patterns, as they didn’t exist at the time, and possibly point 12 about service that simple and intuitive enough so users can complete first time.   Our point here was that to make it simpler would need a change in the underpinning EU regulations and the users are professional and have to understand the regime.

Looking back to 2006, there were other pockets of what is now seen as good digital practice emerging across government at e.g. DVLA and Companies House.

So UK Government Digital is at least 10 years old. When its history is written, as it surely will be, which will be the first service that could have been classed as DbD? Was it the National Packaging Waste Database?

Perhaps we could generate a candidate list in the comments and ask the now sadly departed GDS visionary team to judge.

Featured Post

Digital by default: knowledge and experience

This is one of our ‘ways of working’ blog posts focused on what we offer and how we work with our clients.

If you’re building a digital service in government, it’s important that you operate within Government Digital Service (GDS) guidelines specifically referencing the Service Design Manual and adhering to the Digital by Default Service Standard, including passing the related assessments at the end of each phase (Discovery, Alpha and Beta).

Fimatix, having worked extensively at GDS and on multiple Exemplar projects are not only deeply familiar with these, we’ve also contributed to them. Our consultants will be able to draw on this experience to help you navigate them more efficiently and we as a wider organisation will be able to support you by using our network to introduce you to other projects and programmes across government where they have faced similar challenges to you.

We’ll use our network to strengthen your networks and allow you to learn from others, saving you the time and expense of making the same mistakes that others have made and potentially helping you identify areas where you could work together to create efficiencies or innovations.

Featured Post

Setting an analysis rhythm in large or complex programmes

Back in January, Davina wrote a series of blog posts about setting an analysis rhythm in large or complex programmes for the Government Digital Service (GDS). There are four parts:

Below is a taster from part 1.

[line]

I’m an agile coach in the GDS transformation team. I help to establish and develop the agile working practices for programmes. I work with teams and individuals who are new to agile, and often the colleagues doing analysis. Analysis is the work done to turn an idea into a set of user stories for developers to work from.

Agile programmes tend to have rigour around the delivery of sprints, but the analysis is often less disciplined. It’s helpful to set a clear and constant rhythm for analysis so the right stories are written at the right time. A rhythm allows a team to feel in control of the workload and ensures there are prioritised, well-defined and estimated stories for developers.

Over the next four days I will be blogging about the activities of setting the analysis rhythm. At the end of the week you will have a collection of posts to use as a resource to support your work on large or complex agile programmes. I’ll use terminology specific to agile – the methodology we use to deliver GDS projects. If you’d like to know more about agile, here is a good introduction.

[line]

To read the rest, head over to the GDS Digital Transformation blog.

Featured Post