Source: KAS Bank
KAS BANK, the specialist provider of securities services to the UK pension industry, has developed the UK’s first cost transparency digital dashboard, designed to shine a light on the myriad costs and charges paid by defined benefit (DB) pension schemes, which together look after the pension savings of 33.5 million people across the UK.
Available online and via an app, the innovative dashboard will for the first time offer pension scheme trustees and their governance representatives a comprehensive overview of their scheme’s administration and investment costs, the first step towards establishing a true value for money assessment.
The ground-breaking dashboard was designed and developed entirely in-house at KAS BANK. It collates a wide range of data on a pension scheme’s costs, including hundreds of different transactional and investment-linked charges from various asset managers and fund managers. By simplifying and standardising charge reporting, the technology is the first to give schemes a comprehensive view of their outgoings, presented in an intuitive format with benchmarking capabilities to give schemes a wider market view.
The dashboard aims to inform decision making across the entire value chain, identifying cost efficiencies and supporting effective governance. It will also allow fund and asset managers to evidence the value they are providing to pension schemes.
Stewart Bevan, Product Manager, KAS BANK, said "It’s fair to say that the pensions industry has been somewhat behind the curve when it comes to technological innovation, but for an industry that administers over £1.4 trillion in DB schemes alone, it’s time for that to change. KAS BANK’s cost transparency dashboard is an important step toward bringing the pensions into the 21st Century, meeting the evolving needs of UK pension schemes.
“As a specialist provider with Dutch heritage, we’ve had first-hand experience in pioneering cost transparency in The Netherlands, a country now recognised as a global leader in cost disclosure. Our experience has shown that greater transparency is highly beneficial for the industry as a whole and will be advantageous for UK trustees by facilitating better operational decision making which should improve outcomes for the scheme’s members.
“Costs are not inherently bad, but what is unknown cannot be effectively managed. Recognising the true Total Cost of Ownership of a scheme is crucial to good governance and the tool will enable better understanding. In turn, pension schemes can have better conversations and prove the true value they are receiving."