Commitment helps innovative UK companies to grow quickly – and means a better retirement for savers
Smart Pension, one of the UK’s leading workplace pension providers, today signs the Mansion House Compact, an industry-led voluntary expression of intent to take meaningful action to secure better outcomes for UK savers through increased investment in unlisted equities.
By signing the Compact, Smart Pension is joining the eight other signatories who are committing to achieve a minimum 5% allocation to unlisted equities through defined contribution (DC) pension funds, and other sources of long-term savings through the Compact.
Smart Pension is a technology-enabled workplace pension provider with over £3bn assets under management, over a million members and 70,000 employees across the UK. Smart Pension’s master trust has grown by more than 2,000% in the last four years.
Smart Pension’s parent company, Smart, is a global savings and investments technology provider. A successful tech export story for the UK, Smart partners with governments and financial institutions around the world to deploy its proprietary Keystone platform, giving retirement savers the experience they’ve come to expect from best-in-class digital experiences such as ecommerce sites and online banking.
Smart’s success is underpinned by its Keystone platform. Launched in July 2022, Keystone is the world’s first global, cloud-native, workplace retirement savings platform. The platform already powers numerous retirement savings solutions outside the UK. These include auto enrolment rollouts in several states in the US and a partnership with the global insurer Zurich on the government workplace saving scheme for Dubai.
Will Wynne and Andrew Evans, co-founders of Smart, said: “Smart Pension helps more than a million people across the UK to save toward a better retirement through great tech and great customer experience. Over the last eight years we’ve been able to grow a fantastic, global fintech business from the heart of London by innovating to put UK employers and UK retirement savers first. It’s excellent to see initiatives like this, encouraging the market to create more innovative high-growth UK companies, and in doing so to provide a better retirement for the country’s savers. Naturally we are delighted to support this, and proud to be signatories, investing on behalf of our members to support the UK’s tech sector further, to help more home-grown startups and scaleups to flourish and to deliver for pension savers.”
Ruston Smith, Chair of Smart, said: “Smart Pension is committed to securing better outcomes for long-term savers. Giving UK savers access to higher net returns by investing in unlisted equities, including innovative high-growth UK companies, as part of a well diversified portfolio, will deliver these outcomes over time. We are pleased to be a signatory of the Mansion House Compact and, as a successful British fintech, we are proud to be supporting the country’s technology sector, helping home-grown startups and scaleups to flourish and thrive.”
Nikesh Patel, Trustee director of the Smart Pension Master Trust, said: “The Trustees look to generate strong returns for members. Investing in certain unlisted equities, including innovative high-growth UK companies, creates potential for strong returns and should deliver better outcomes over the long term our members are saving for. The Smart Pension Master Trust is committed to ensuring that its members gain access to a range of appropriate and relevant asset classes. For example, we have had a private credit allocation in our default fund since April 2021, which has given rare access to this asset class in DC pension schemes.”
Rowena Humphreys, Sustainability Director at Smart, said: “As a company deeply committed to sustainability, Smart is excited to extend its full support to the Mansion House Compact. These impactful measures, channelling substantial investments into fast-growing UK companies and green initiatives, resonate perfectly with our mission to transform retirement, savings and financial wellbeing, across all generations, around the world. Together, we can foster sustainable growth, amplify returns for pension scheme members, and make a meaningful impact on our planet.”
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