Penfold, the first digital-only pension helping modern workers ‘forget about the future’, has partnered with NorthRow to accelerate its onboarding process and help users set up a pension in "five minutes".

A third of adults in the UK don’t currently pay into a pension. Even worse, less than a fifth of the UK’s five million self-employed workers have a pension at all. There are two primary reasons for this trend: they find it difficult to formulate a regular habit of saving into a pension as regular earnings aren’t easy to forecast, and because traditional providers do not adequately cater for the most people not in full-time employment. 

Penfold, the modern digital pension provider, has built a simple to use app specifically for the underserved worker of today - those with multiple pensions, small pots and the self-employed. Users can easily set up, combine, manage and track their pensions online or via their mobile devices. 

Traditional pension providers create unnecessary barriers for entry. The process is often littered with jargon and the guidance at HMRC is deliberately vague - a minefield unless you have an accountant. Added to this the volume of paperwork involved and the cumbersome compliance hurdles often results in a poor onboarding experience and for a high abandonment of the end user.

Penfold identified the opportunity to provide a tailored solution that focused on flexibility, engaging guidance, more transparency over return on investment and reducing withdrawal restrictions. Over the last 12 months, Penfold has increased its user base by 6-fold and has raised more than £5m from investors.

It was imperative for Penfold to offer an effortless onboarding experience for users, without compromising their regulatory compliance obligations. Penfold partnered with NorthRow to not only accelerate the client due diligence and Know Your Customer processes from the point of onboarding, but also to enable continual monitoring of their customers changing risk status throughout the customer lifecycle. Workers can now sign up and be activated in just "five minutes", as well as easily combine their old pensions into one simple pot.

Pete Hykin, co-founder of Penfold, said “Our aim is to make pensions as accessible and engaging as banking has become. To deliver our vision of creating a completely digital pension service, Penfold needed a first-class technology partner that shared its mantra of flexibility, ease and security. Our new relationship with NorthRow has made this possible, by accelerating our client onboarding processes for Penfold users whilst ensuring the highest levels of compliance."

Adam Holden, CEO at NorthRow said: “The world of work has changed and it is fantastic to see a solution that can now deliver an innovative way to provide a flexible approach to pension saving. We are pleased to support the onboarding process to make this as easy as possible for investors whilst ensuring Penfold remains compliant at all times."