The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has imposed penalties of GBP 50,000 each on NOW: Pensions Ltd (NPL) and NOW: Pension Trustee Ltd (NPTL) for failing to correctly report significant events and breaches of law as soon as reasonably practicable. The enforcement action follows historic failures that resulted in more than 80,000 statutory communications not being sent. Under the significant event regime, NPL and NPTL were required to notify TPR as soon as reasonably practicable of any systems or process failures in running the master trust that had a significant adverse effect on service delivery, with reports generally expected within one working day. The undelivered communications were intended to inform members and potential members of their rights under automatic enrolment legislation, with affected individuals experiencing non-financial and, in some cases, financial detriment by being denied the opportunity to make choices over auto-enrolment options. Two of the same communication failures were reported as breaches of law, but not on the required prompt basis. TPR has published a regulatory intervention report describing how it used its powers following a decision by its Determination Panel, and noted that NOW has since made changes to enhance its reporting processes. The update also reiterates TPR’s prudential-style supervision of master trusts, which official statistics indicate cover 28 million memberships and GBP 166 billion in assets.

Original source View in tracker