Keystone by Smart is a new tech platform to revolutionise the US$62 tn retirement savings sector. Keystone already underpins Smart Pension’s Master Trust in the UK, which alone has more than £2 bn 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 superannuation industry.
What is the product offering of Keystone?
Its Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering will be made available to national and regional gov’ts, 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/days.
The launch of Keystone days after Smart selected Melbourne as the home of its new Aussie headquarters, in an announcement welcomed by Tim Pallas, Victoria’s Minister for Economic Development. This move follows the recent introduction of the Retirement Income Covenant in Australia, which seeks to provide superannuation funds with greater flexibility.
How will Smart’s clients benefit from Keystone?
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 for the best user experience.
At launch, Keystone already powers numerous retirement savings solutions outside the UK. These include auto enrolment rollouts in several states in the United States of America; 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.
What do the executives have to say about the launch?
Andrew Evans, Group CEO and co-founder of Smart, said “Keystone enables financial services organisations to serve their clients better. 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 market but previously needed the tools to make it happen. We are making a technologically fragmented industry user-friendly.”
Will Wynne, Group Managing Director and co-founder of Smart, said, “Much of our industry is built on decades-old technology, which holds back millions of savers across the planet.”
“Our experience in auto enrolment revolution in the UK gave us a better understanding in that, and now we’ve built a platform to help savers and providers worldwide. Keystone makes pensions cheaper for organisations everywhere. It also gives savers the experience they’ve come to expect from best-in-class ecommerce sites and online banking.” he added.
The response from Smart’s investors and the 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 and DWS Group.
Simon Rogerson, CEO and co-founder of Octopus Group, said, “Keystone is a unique tech platform capable of transforming the fintech world – the $62 tn global retirement savings market. It’s an area where the industry is crying out for modern tech platforms, to deliver better outcomes for gov’ts, financial services organisations and their customers worldwide.”
“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.” he added.
