Traffic light labelling for the UK pensions industry
Start date
November 2021End date
June 2022Overview
In the UK, £90 billion is paid into workplace pensions and the UK pensions industry is a multi trillion-dollar industry. However, events such as the 2008 global financial crisis and the COVID pandemic have seen the erosion of people’s pension pots.
More than one million 55-to-64-year-olds plan to delay retirement as a result, and according to HM Revenue & Customs 360,000 individuals withdrew £2.4 billion from UK pensions in Q4 2020.
At the University of Surrey we want to develop a better understanding of UK pension savings products and along with our partner, the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), we will be investigating the feasibility of designing a traffic light label system for pensions to give individuals a better understanding of their savings. We’re interested to understand whether this kind of system in a dashboard context could be used to provide an indication to a scheme member about the quality of life they could expect in retirement.
“Traffic light labelling” is a design that can be placed on product descriptions to show detailed information about the product. It is already used in the energy efficiency labelling of domestic appliances and the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) (e.g., in the sale of properties). In the food industry such traffic labels are used to show the energy, fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt content of products. The colour-coded system makes it easier for consumers to see whether the contents are high or low in a particular ingredient.
Within this work we will also consider the potential impact a traffic light system may have on people’s behavioural intentions and explore opportunities to improve overall engagement with pensions and savings products.
The project builds upon previous work Bonnie Buchanan has done in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in financial services and previous work MariaLaura Di Domenico has conducted into big data. AI approaches, including textual analysis and natural language processing, can assist with labelling decisions.
Our Partner
Team
Professor Bonnie Buchanan
Director of Sustainable and Explainable FinTech (SAEF) Center, Immediate Past Head of Department of Finance and Accounting and Professor of Finance
Biography
Professor Bonnie Buchanan is the Director of the Sustainable and Explainable FinTech (SAEF) Center at the Surrey Business School (SBS) and a Professor of Finance. She is the Immediate Past Head of the Department of Finance and Accounting at SBS (2019 - 2023). Professor Buchanan is also a fellow of the University's Center of Sustainability, the Center for AI and the Centre of Digital Economy (CoDE).
In 2018-2019, Professor Buchanan served as the USA Fulbright-Hanken Distinguished Chair of Business and Economics at the Hanken School of Economics, Finland. Prior to this, Professor Buchanan worked at Seattle University where she was the Howard Bosanko Professor in International Finance and Economics and the George Albers Professor. She also served as the MSF program director and MBA program director at Seattle University.
Professor Buchanan has published in leading international journals including the Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Business Ethics, American Business Law Journal, Journal of International Financial Markets and Institutions, International Review of Financial Analysis, Oxford Review of Economic Policy and European Journal of Finance. Her research on shareholder proposals has been recognized with the Hoeber Memorial Award for Outstanding Article in American Business Law Journal and her work has been cited in the Financial Times. She has research expertise in FinTech, AI in financial services, securitization, CSR and law and finance. Professor Buchanan has also taught in Australia, Russia and Finland. She was the Editor in Chief of Journal of Risk Finance between 2013-2021.
Professor Buchanan also appears in the media on FinTech, big data and AI issues.
Professor MariaLaura Di Domenico
Associate Head of School Research and Innovation & Professor (Chair) of Entrepreneurship, Work and Organization
See profileImpact
Pensions savings represents one of the biggest life cycle choices people make, so we believe this project is essential to creating real societal impact in this area.
Our main objective is to explore whether a traffic light labelling system might support people to plan for later life and build their confidence and understanding of pensions, aiding lifelong financial literacy.
We will identify which pension funds may have the most potential to influence people’s choices, consider the impacts on people’s behavioural intentions and highlight any barriers to achieving a lasting system that supports better pension engagement and decision making.
The traffic light labelling system is not without controversy and we also want to understand the limitations in terms of how the system communicates and influences consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and evaluations.
We’ll also investigate whether a traffic light labelling system would potentially be supported by policymakers and regulators.
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