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Pensions and long-term savings are complex systems requiring different groups and individuals to communicate and transact with one another. Savers need their money to be turned into investments, employers need to provide their own contributions, savings need to accord with the employee’s salary, they need to be made in a way that reflects any fiscal transfers appropriately, and they need to be responsive to any regulatory change further down the road.

A robust API strategy is critical here, eliminating the requirement for laborious and error-prone manual data entry and saving time and resources for employers. By synchronising the transfer of essential data such as employment commencement dates, monthly earnings, and bonuses, API integration facilitates real-time fund transfers from salary deductions into investment portfolios.

As the popular investment adage goes: “time in the market beats timing the market”. This is all the more so for pension investments, which by their nature operate across lengthy horizons. Research by JP Morgan has found that $10,000 invested on 1 January 2003 would have become $64,000 by 30 December 2022. However, if it had missed the ten best days for investment returns during that period, it would have only been $29,000. Furthermore, seven of the ten best days for investment returns occurred within two weeks of the ten worst days. Cash efficiently turned into investments means more time in the market, which in turn means better outcomes for savers.

Smart’s unique pension technology solution, Keystone, is specifically built and configured to suit a host of different third parties across different geographies. Designed and delivered by a 300+ strong team of engineers, it has been built to allow employers to manage pension processes, employees to manage their savings efficiently, and advisers to act effectively on their behalf, with third party applications able to integrate directly with the API in real time. Keystone is currently used across four continents by large financial institutions and public bodies to deliver contemporary largescale savings and pension products.