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Add pension providers and schemes

Contents
Overview
What happens next
File error messages
Pension providers and schemes with multiple holdernames GUIDs
Support
Changelog

Overview

Purpose

To add one or more pension provider or scheme to the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) ecosystem using a bulk upload file.

Who completes this step?

  • primary business contact
  • scheme administrator

Read the full list of roles and responsibilities.

Before you begin

  • Ensure you have the regulator number, regulator body and registration code for each pension provider or scheme you want to add.
  • Decide how you want the pension provider or scheme name to appear in the connection portal.
  • Choose your connection date for each pension provider or scheme. This is the date that your pension provider or scheme will go live. It should be at least 1 working day after you submit the request.
  • Ensure you have obtained internal IT change management approval.

Choose which file format to use

You can upload the data as either a CSV or JSON file.

CSV

  • You can only have one holdername associated with a pension provider or scheme.
  • All the pension providers and schemes uploaded will be associated with one view endpoint and one PAT refresh endpoint.

JSON

  • You can have multiple holdernames associated with a pension provider or scheme.
  • The endpoints associated with each holdername can be different.

If you want to add multiple holdernames in one file upload, you need to use a JSON file.

CSV guide

Prepare the data

  • Choose the view endpoint and PAT refresh endpoint that will be associated with the pension providers and schemes you are adding. If either of these has not been added to the ecosystem, you will need to request additional endpoints through the technical change process.
  • Prepare a holdername GUID for each pension provider or scheme.

Format the data

The data in your CSV file must follow the following format:

  • Regulator body: ‘FCA’ or ‘TPR’. Character limit of 3. No special characters allowed.
  • Regulator number: Alphanumeric. No character limit. No special characters allowed.
  • Registration code: Alphanumeric.
  • Pension provider or scheme name: Alphanumeric. No character limit. Special characters are allowed.
  • Holdername: Globally unique identifier (GUID) made up of 36 characters. It uses the characters 0 to 9 and lowercase a to f to create a string of 32 hexadecimal characters grouped as 8-4-4-4-12 and separated by four hyphens.
  • Connection year: YYYY. Character limit of 4. No special characters allowed.
  • Connection month: MM. Character limit of 2. No special characters allowed.
  • Connection day: DD. Character limit of 2. No special characters allowed.

Download CSV bulk upload template

Upload the file

1. On the connection portal, select the ‘Pension providers and schemes’ tab and click ‘Add pension providers and schemes’.

2. Read the ‘Add pension providers and schemes’ page and click ‘Start’.

3. Confirm that you meet the requirements of internal IT change management approval

4. Select ‘CSV’ as the file type you want to upload.

5. Read the ‘Before you start’ page.

6. Select the view endpoint URL you want the pension providers and schemes to be associated with.

7. Select the PAT refresh endpoint URL you want the pension providers and schemes to be associated with

8. Upload your CSV file. You will get on-screen confirmation that the upload has been successful.

The file must be smaller than 25MB and be in a CSV format. The file can contain a maximum of 1,000 pension providers and schemes. You can only upload one file per submission.

9. Review the results of your upload.

If there are no errors, select ‘Yes, submit this file’ and click ‘Continue’.

If there are errors, you need to download the file and correct them. The downloaded file will list out each error to explain what you need to do. If you incorrectly enter the registration code 3 times, the code will expire. You will need to request a new registration code from your regulator.

10. Click ‘Confirm and submit’.

Once you have submitted the file you cannot change any of the data you have submitted in this journey.

11. You will be shown a unique reference number, which will also be emailed to you. You will need this if you need to manage your requests.

JSON guide

Prepare the data

  • Prepare the holdername GUIDs for each pension provider or scheme.
  • Choose the view and PAT refresh endpoints that will be associated with each holdername (you can have different endpoints associated with each holdername). If either of these has not been added to the ecosystem, you will need to request additional endpoints through the technical change process.
  • Format the data exactly as specified in the bulk upload template file below.

Format the data

The data in your JSON file must follow the following format:

  • regulatorBody: ‘FCA’ or ‘TPR’. Character limit of 3. No special characters allowed.
  • regulatorNumber: Alphanumeric. No character limit. No special characters allowed.
  • registrationCode: Alphanumeric.
  • pensionProviderOrSchemeName: Alphanumeric. No character limit. Special characters are allowed.
  • connectionYear: YYYY. Character limit of 4. No special characters allowed.
  • connectionMonth: MM. Character limit of 2. No special characters allowed.
  • connectionDay: DD. Character limit of 2. No special characters allowed.
  • holderNames: following 3 data items are nested under this item
    • holderNameGUID: Globally unique identifier (GUID) made up of 36 characters. It uses the characters 0 to 9 and lowercase a to f to create a string of 32 hexadecimal characters grouped as 8-4-4-4-12 and separated by four hyphens.
    • holderNameViewEndpoint: URL. Must start with https.
    • holderNamePatRefreshEndpoint: URL. Must start with https.

Download JSON bulk upload template

Upload a JSON file

1. On the connection portal, select the ‘Pension providers and schemes’ tab and click ‘Add pension providers and schemes’.

2. Read the ‘Add pension providers and schemes’ page and click ’Start’.

3. Confirm that you meet the requirements of Internal IT change management approval by selecting ‘Yes’ and then ‘Continue’. If you do not confirm that you meet the requirements you cannot proceed.

4. Select what type of file upload you want to use, either CSV or JSON. Select JSON and then select ‘Continue’

5. Read the ‘Before you start’ page and click ‘Continue’

6. Upload your JSON file. Once it has been uploaded, click ‘Continue’. At this point the data is validated to ensure both that it is correctly formatted and that the regulator body, regulator number and registration code match the information provided by the regulator.

The file must be smaller than 25MB and be in a JSON format. The file can contain a maximum of 1,000 pension providers and schemes. You can only upload one file per submission.

7. On the ‘Bulk upload pension providers and schemes’ page, you will see that the file has been uploaded successfully. Select ‘Continue’.

8. Review the results of your upload.

If there are no errors, select ‘Yes, submit this file’ and click ‘Continue’.

If there are errors, you need to download the file and correct them. The downloaded file will list out each error to explain what you need to do. If you incorrectly enter the registration code 3 times, the code will expire. You will need to request a new registration code from your regulator.

Once you have submitted the file you cannot change any of the data you have submitted in this journey.

9. Check your answers before submitting and then select ‘Confirm and submit’.

10. You will be taken to a page which confirms that you have submitted your request to add additional pension providers and schemes.

There will be a reference number on the confirmation page which can be used on the ‘Pension providers and schemes’ page to search for your requests.

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What happens next

We will email you to confirm that we have received your submission.

The additional pension providers and schemes can be approved in 2 ways:

Automatic approval

A pension provider or scheme is automatically approved if its connection date is after your vouching scheme connection date.

Manual approval

The pension provider or scheme will be manually approved if its connection date is before your vouching scheme connection date. This will be reviewed within 5 working days: PDP’s change and release manager may contact you if they have any questions.

Once approved, your pension provider or scheme will go live on the requested connection date. Your PBC and scheme admin can track the status of your organisation’s pension provider and scheme records using the table under the ‘Pension provider and schemes’ header.

You can request a change a connection date via the ‘Scheme data management’ journey in the ‘Pension providers and schemes' tab. Your request will be reviewed and we’ll let you know the outcome within 5 working days.

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File error messages

If there are errors with your file uploads you will get an error message for each error. These break down into 10 types.

Registration code check error

This can appear for the following reasons:

  • registration code missing
  • registration code incorrect
  • registration code expired after 3 incorrect attempts
  • registration code already used
  • regulator number missing
  • regulator number incorrect
  • regulator body missing
  • regulator body incorrect

Regulator body error

This can appear when:

  • the Regulator Body is not correctly entered as ‘TPR’ or ‘FCA’

Pension provider or scheme already added error

This can appear when:

  • the combination of regulator number and body has already been added

Regulator number duplicate error

This can appear when:

  • the same regulator number has been entered twice in an upload

Holdername error

This can appear when:

  • the holdername is not correctly formatted as a GUID
  • the holdername is missing

Holdername duplicate error

This can appear when:

  • the holdername GUID is not unique within the ecosystem. To resolve, you should change the holdername GUID.

Connection date error

This can appear when:

  • the connection date is missing
  • the connection date is in the past

Pension provider or scheme name error

This can appear when:

  • the pension provider or scheme name is missing
  • the pension provider or scheme name exceeds 300 characters

View endpoint error (JSON only)

This can appear when:

  • the view endpoint is missing
  • the view endpoint does not match the view endpoint held for the organisation

PAT refresh endpoint error (JSON only)

This can appear when:

  • the PAT refresh endpoint is missing
  • the PAT refresh endpoint does not match the PAT refresh endpoint held for the organisation
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Pension providers and schemes with multiple holdernames GUIDs

You may need to add additional holdername GUIDs to a pension provider or scheme, for example where:

  • pension data for a pension provider or scheme is held in 2 locations (that is, at 2 different endpoint URLs)
  • the pension provider or scheme is being administered by more than one organisation, and you are connecting both organisations

You can only add one holdername per pension provider or scheme if you upload a CSV file.

You can add multiple holdernames per pension provider or scheme if you upload a JSON file.

If you have already uploaded pension providers or scheme to the connection portal, you can add additional holdernames to individual records under the ‘Pension providers and schemes’ tab. For more information, see our scheme data management guidance (to be published).

Submitting a bulk upload following an abandoned attempt

A different user will be able to start and submit the bulk upload process if it has previously been abandoned by another user due to errors.

If multiple users try to use the same journey at the same time, users will see the following error message:

“There is a problem

Another user is using this process. You must wait for this to complete”.

There is a 30-minute lockout period to prevent simultaneous changes being made.

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Support

Find answers to common queries about pensions dashboards, give feedback or get technical support.

Get support

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Changelog

Last updated:07/05/2026

7 May 2026

  • Removed section on "Known issue regarding 'Added by' user audit logs". This issue has been resolved.

4 September 2025

  • Added information on a known issue that occurs when a pension provider or scheme is added multiple times by different users. This issue does not prevent pension providers and schemes from being added successfully.

2 July 2025

  • Added warnings that if you incorrectly enter the registration code 3 times, the code will expire and a new registration code will need to be requested from your regulator.
  • Updated 'Registration code check error' to include code expiring after 3 incorrect attempts and registration code already used.

12 June 2025

  • Restructured to separate guidance for CSV and JSON journeys.
  • Updates to approvals process automation.
  • Addition and amendment of error messages.
  • Addition of reference to lockout period.
  • Change to internal IT change management approval step.

7 May 2025

  • Updated 'regulating body' to 'regulator body' throughout for consistency.

30 April 2025

  • Added information on JSON file uploads. JSON uploads allow you to have multiple holdernames associated with a pension provider or scheme. The endpoints associated with each holdername can be different.

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