Significant question marks remain over whether the European Commission's (EC) Framework for Financial Data Access (FIDA) will be able to improve the communication of pension data to scheme members.

In a recent webinar, organised by The European Association of Paritarian Institutions (AEIP) and PensionsEurope, on how to provide better information to pension fund members, the EC's head of digital finance, Jan Ceyssens, admitted that at present, FIDA will not be able to provide a complete pension and financial picture for savers within the EU.

Ceyssens said that FIDA will have to act as a hybrid tool for savers in conjunction with pension dashboards and tracking systems. He said FIDA will only have its "full effect" if it is complemented with other systems that are in place at a national member state level for first and third-pillar pensions. How pension products offered by insurance companies will be incorporated within the scope of FIDA is also still to be resolved.

The EC will, however, ensure that FIDA is as flexible as possible, and will not require countries to set up financial overview systems from scratch. Member states will therefore be able to leverage existing pension information sharing systems with FIDA.

"We are trying to be flexible with the framework," said Ceyssens during the webinar. "And actually in a way what matters is the outcome — the information needs to be available in standardised formats. So we are expecting a lot of approaches here, which would be building on existing systems and maybe upgrading them."

Ceyseens added that there are many encouraging signs from countries in collaborating with the EC to ensure that FIDA can operate smoothly with other pension information portals.

"There's a good chance that in the end, [the various] systems will work together seamlessly," he said. "Citizens don't care whether information is available based on European or national legislation. So if in the end, let's say the first pillar pension information is available on national rules and then the other pillars are based maybe on FIDA, what matters for them is that it's available."

Nevertheless, the prospect of all member states being able to bolt FIDA onto their own fully functioning financial information hubs remains distant, implied EIOPA head of policy, Justin Wray, who also participated in the webinar.

In order for the complete framework to work, he agreed with Ceyssens on the need for a standardisation of data, as well as complete tracking systems. The problem, however, is that many countries are unable or unwilling to carry out the necessary work at present.

"The reaction from some member states, is 'yes, a tracking system would be a good idea or sure, we've already got one'," said Wray. "Others, however, throw out their hands in horror and say 'that's just not possible'. There is not sufficient standardsation in terms of data collection between iorps for a tracking system focused on individuals to work at this point."

In addition, governance of pension tracking systems is crucial, argued Wray. He said that trust is vital and that everyone needed to be confident that those running tracking systems were doing it for the benefit of members and not for their own commercial benefit.

Encouragingly, he added, there appears to be a willingness among many member states to accelerate the introduction of pension dashboards, which would greatly aid FIDA's aims.

"There is enough appetite for a sort of prototypes or development of dashboards among member states," said Wray. "And there is important work there to be done. And dashboards we know are difficult in terms of governments getting the relevant data, but they are an important tool [to introduce] particularly as pension systems themselves shift to defined contribution."

On the topic of pension benefit statements (PBS), the webinar tackled the issue of giving members information overload. Wray agreed with webinar host Simone Miotto, executive director at AEIP, that "too much information does indeed kill information".

"Members don't need endless information," said Wray. "And we have sought to reflect that balance in the advice that we have given. For example, with the SFDR disclosures, we propose that there be a cross-reference to those in a pension benefit statement, rather than a repetition. So if you're particularly interested in sustainable finance, you click on a link to get to the information about SFD, but not everybody has an interest in seeing that."

EIOPA has carried out work on how savers receive and act on information and Wray said that layering is crucial in benefit statements. "You need to make sure that the most important information is first and then if you want to find out more, you can go deeper," he added.

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