Smart launches Keystone – a new technology platform to solve the global retirement problem
Smart, the leading global retirement technology provider, has launched Keystone by Smart – a new technology platform to revolutionise the $62 trillion retirement savings sector.
Keystone already underpins Smart Pension’s Master Trust in the UK, which alone has more than £2 billion of assets under management. The platform accounts for more than 1 million savers and 70,000 corporate plans, and is also actively onboarding several additional retirement savings solutions in partnership with financial institutions around the world. These partnerships give Keystone the near-term prospect of serving more than 8 million people.
With the capacity to serve hundreds of millions, Keystone by Smart will now be rolled out to corporate and public-sector clients across the global pensions industry. Its Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering will be made available to national and regional governments, banks, pension providers, asset managers, trade associations and affinity groups.
A flexible, agile and cloud-native platform operating on a single global code base, Keystone also brings radical efficiency to large data migrations – meaning that consolidation and M&A projects that previously took years using legacy systems are now possible in weeks or even days.
Keystone functions as a standalone workplace retirement savings platform, and is interoperable with other financial services and retirement software, alongside payroll and HR management integrations. Users of existing pensions services can also move to Keystone’s technology seamlessly, saving time and money for both employers and employees.
Keystone’s versatility makes it applicable to a variety of retirement savings systems around the world. It is designed to keep pace with fast-changing pensions legislation and to meet the needs of savers in any language and any currency.
At launch, Keystone already powers numerous retirement savings solutions outside the UK. These include auto enrolment rollouts in several states in the US; work with New Ireland Assurance, part of Bank of Ireland Group, to enable workplace retirement savings; and a partnership with Zurich on a workplace saving scheme for Dubai.
Andrew Evans, Group CEO and Co-Founder of Smart, said, “Keystone by Smart enables financial services organisations to serve their clients and customers better and faster. It allows savers to connect to their money and manage their pensions in real time.
Keystone will also help corporate and strategic investors, who see opportunities to create efficiency in the global market but haven’t previously had the tools to make it happen. We are making a technologically fragmented industry more user-friendly for everyone.”
Will Wynne, Group MD and Co-Founder of Smart, added, “Much of our industry is built on decades-old technology, which holds back millions of savers across the planet. Our experience in leading the auto enrolment revolution in the UK gave us an early head start in understanding that, and now we’ve built a platform to help savers and providers worldwide.
“Keystone by Smart makes pensions easier and cheaper for organisations everywhere to provide. It also gives savers the experience they’ve come to expect from best-in-class ecommerce sites and online banking.”
The response from Smart’s investors and the wider fintech industry has been very positive. Smart’s investors include Legal & General Investment Management, J.P. Morgan, the Link Group, Barclays, Natixis Investment Managers, Chrysalis Investments, DWS Group, and Fidelity International Strategic Ventures.
Another investor in Smart, Simon Rogerson, CEO and Co-Founder of Octopus Group, said, “Keystone is a unique piece of technology: a platform capable of transforming the sleeping giant of the fintech world – the $62 trillion global retirement savings market. It’s an area where the entire industry is crying out for a modern technology platform, to deliver better outcomes for governments, financial services organisations and their customers and citizens around the world.
“With already more than a million savers on the platform today and a trajectory to support tens of millions of users in the near future, Keystone will be as transformative for pensions and retirement as Octopus Energy’s Kraken platform already has been for energy.”
Further information about Keystone by Smart can be found at Smart’s website.
