The personal pensions regime

The regulation of personal pensions

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has a wide regulatory role across financial markets. Any firm that carries out certain types of activities (known as regulated activities) in the UK must be directly authorised by the FCA and will fall within its regulatory ambit.

Regulated activities are set out in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, SI 2001/544 and include the activity of establishing, operating and winding-up a personal pension scheme or stakeholder scheme (SI 2001/544, art 52).

While the task of regulating personal pension schemes falls primarily on the FCA, the Pensions Regulator plays a complementary role insofar as:

1. •

   those schemes have direct payment arrangements in respect of one or more scheme members who are employees, and

2. •

   the regulatory function in question focuses on:

   1. ◦

      protecting the benefits of members of such schemes, and

   2. ◦

      promoting the good administration of work-based pension schemes

For further information on the respective roles of the Pensions Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), areas of overlap in their regulatory work, and the