The UK's wealth management and pensions industry has expressed its disappointment at the announcement of a delay to the much anticipated Pensions Dashboard project.

The Pensions Dashboard concept was first aired in 2015 as a way to put savers’ pension information in one single online location.

It was originally scheduled to go live in 2019 but has been subject to repeated delays.

The latest setback was announced by pensions minister Laura Trott who cited technical and regulatory issues.

“More time is needed to deliver this complex build and for the pensions industry to help facilitate the successful connection of a wide range of different IT systems to the dashboard's digital architecture,” said Trott.

The decision was met with disappointment by a number of pension providers, wealth managers and investment platforms.

“The Pension Dashboard Programme is an incredibly ambitious project,” said Lily Megson, policy director at My Pension Expert. “And I applaud the government for not rushing to push out an inadequate project; it must be done right. That said, this delay is a disappointing turn of events.”

Nick Meredith, products director at software company Equisoft, said that it is not surprising that a project of such complexity would be subject to delays, but he also expressed frustration that there is currently no hard deadline for a restart.

Alice Guy, personal finance editor at wealth management platform interactive investor expressed similar sentiments: “This is a highly technical project, requiring new IT systems and digital architecture to allow pension providers to share pensions information safely and accurately.

"Although the delay is disappointing, it’s important that the practicalities of the pensions dashboards project are worked through to make sure the new system is a success.”

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