Now: Pensions has announced its decision to withdraw itself from the master trust assurance list of providers for auto-enrolment, while it works to resolve historic issues processing contributions for a small percentage of clients.

The company said the issues are “largely as a result” of a change of its third party administrator, which has resulted in delays processing contributions for a small percentage of clients. It stressed that it has an open and ongoing dialogue with the regulator regarding all aspects of the scheme.

It said it has kept The Pensions Regulator fully updated regarding these historic issues and accept that getting these schemes up to date has taken longer than it should due to the complexity of some of the cases, the poor quality data that was sometimes involved and the systems used.

Now: Pensions CEO Morten Nilsson noted that the provider is a “huge supporter” of the master trust assurance framework and has completed the framework three times and remain committed to it.

“We feel that while we work to resolve these historic issues and ensure that every scheme is up to date, it’s appropriate to withdraw from the list. We are confident that this work will be completed shortly. Providing our clients and members the best possible service remains our top priority,” he said.

Nilsson added: “We should have been more proactive in our communications with affected clients and members regarding these issues and apologise wholeheartedly to those we have let down. In this instance, we have fallen short of the standard of service we aim to provide.”

Furthermore, to prevent a re-occurrence of these issues, Now: Pensions said it has invested, and continues to invest heavily in new systems, people and processes. Over the past two years, it has been building a large internal operation out of its office in Nottingham and its own auto-enrolment site to upload payroll files called the Now: Pensions Gateway.

A statement from the regulator said there is no suggestion that the assets of members are at risk as a result of the scheme coming off the list, or that employers whose workplace pensions are in place with Now: Pensions are not complying with their automatic enrolment duties.

TPR executive director of frontline regulation Nicola Parish said: “Those in the master trust marketplace should be in no doubt that we will act if we become concerned about the way schemes are being run, no matter the size of the scheme involved.

“Schemes have a responsibility to meet specific criteria required to remain on the master trust assurance list. If a scheme fails to meet the criteria, we will consider removing it from the list.”

TPR is engaging with the scheme trustee and Now: Pensions to address the ongoing concerns about the scheme. Once Now: Pensions has addressed its ongoing issues, it can apply to be put back on the master trust assurance list. TPR will monitor its progress in this.

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