TPR outlines new structure with market oversight function
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The Pensions Regulator will reorganise into three new regulatory directorates from April – regulatory compliance, market oversight, and strategy, policy and analysis. They will be supported by an operations and a people function. New executive directors will be appointed to lead the three functions.
The strategic change follows the appointment of chief executive Nausicaa Delfas in March last year as well as calls for TPR to assume a market oversight function following the liability-driven investment debacle of autumn 2022.
The regulator said the pensions sector is moving away from single-trust schemes towards fewer and larger providers who operate on a competitive basis, creating new risks and opportunities for savers and the economy.
“The market should expect us to engage with it differently from now on,” said TPR’s chair, Sarah Smart. “Our new structure means we will be swifter to address compliance failures and market-wide risks while being more dynamic in our industry engagement and bringing innovation to the fore.”
Delfas added: “We have to make sure that workplace pensions work for savers. Our organisational changes are about bringing our talented and capable colleagues together to protect, enhance and innovate in savers’ interests.”
In December last year, Delfas told MPs that a market oversight requirement was key for TPR and would mark a shift from being compliance-focussed to taking a broader view of the market. She also called for greater information gathering powers for the regulator to achieve market oversight.
From April, TPR will have three new regulatory functions:
regulatory compliance for “protecting pension savers' interests through the effective and efficient delivery of regulatory compliance services, targeting schemes and employers”;
market oversight for “enhancing the market through strategic engagement with schemes and others who influence pension savers’ outcomes, with a strong focus on delivering value for money and trusteeship”; and
strategy, policy and analysis, using insights from TPR’s regulatory approach and elsewhere to “evolve the regulatory framework and support market innovation in savers’ interests”.
The regulator said most functions currently in its frontline regulation directorate, including enforcement, intelligence, customer service and regulatory transactions, will move into the new regulatory compliance directorate, as will the auto-enrolment team.
TPR’s supervision team, which is currently under frontline regulation, will move to the new market oversight directorate, as will TPR’s communications function.
The regulator will recruit this spring to fill executive director roles for the three areas, which will also be board-level appointments, pending approval by the secretary of state. In the meantime, as the three new areas become operational in April, TPR will appoint interim directors from within its organisation.
Last December, Delfas also said that TPR is hiring “some further external capability either through a type of panel or some supplementary back row economist resource”.
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