Add pension providers and schemes

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

Choose the kind of file you will use to upload your pension providers and schemes. You can upload either:

• CSV (comma separated values)
• JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

CSV uploads allow you to have only one holdername associated with a pension provider or scheme. All the providers and schemes uploaded will be associated with one view endpoint and one PAT refresh endpoint.

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

For both CSV and JSON

• 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 10 working days after you submit the request.
• Prepare evidence of your internal IT change management approval.

For CSV only

• Choose the view and PAT refresh endpoints that will be associated with the pension providers and schemes you are adding. All the pension providers and schemes must have the same view and PAT refresh endpoints for this upload. If your View or PAT refresh endpoint URL has not been added to the ecosystem, then you will need to complete the request additional endpoints process.
• Prepare a holdername GUID for each pension provider or scheme.
• Format the data exactly as specified in the bulk upload template below.

Download CSV bulk upload template

For JSON only

• 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 your View or PAT refresh endpoint URL has not been added to the ecosystem, then you will need to complete the request additional endpoints process.
• Format the data exactly as specified in the bulk upload sample file below.

Download JSON bulk upload sample

What you need to do in this step

CSV uploads

1. On the connection portal, navigate to 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. Select what type of file upload you want to use, either CSV or JSON. Select CSV.

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

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

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

7. Upload your CSV 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.

8. Review the results of your upload. You can download the results to see any errors, see below for error examples. You can correct them and replace the file or submit with the pension providers and schemes that have been successfully processed. When you are ready to proceed, select ‘Yes, submit this file’ and click ‘Continue’.

9. You will be taken to a page which confirms that the file has been submitted. Click ‘Continue’.

10. Upload evidence of your internal IT change management approval. This can be a screenshot or PDF of your internal IT change management approval (also known as IT service acceptance) from your change management tool. This must show that the addition of these schemes does not impact your architecture. You may need to ask your service manager for this. Once you have uploaded your file, click ‘Continue’.

11. Check your answers. You can change your view and PAT refresh endpoints and the file for your internal IT change management approval. Once you are satisfied with your answers, click ‘Confirm and submit’.

JSON uploads

1. On the connection portal, navigate to 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. Select what type of file upload you want to use, either CSV or JSON. Select JSON.

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

7. 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.

8. Review the results of your upload. You can download the results to see any errors, see below for error examples. You can correct them and replace the file or submit with the pension providers and schemes that have been successfully processed. When you are ready to proceed, select ‘Yes, submit this file’ and click ‘Continue’.

9. You will be taken to a page which confirms that the file has been submitted. Click ‘Continue’.

10. Upload evidence of your internal IT change management approval. This can be a screenshot or PDF of your internal IT change management approval (also known as IT service acceptance) from your change management tool. This must show that the addition of these schemes does not impact your architecture. You may need to ask your service manager for this. Once you have uploaded your file, click ‘Continue’.

11. Check your answers. You can change your file for your internal IT change management approval. Once you are satisfied with your answers, click ‘Confirm and submit’.

What happens next

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

Your request to add pension providers and schemes will be reviewed by the PDP change and release manager. They may contact your primary business contact (PBC) to discuss changing a connection date. You will be informed of the outcome of your request in 5 working days.

Once approved by PDP, 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.

If you need to change a connection date, you need to request this via the ‘Scheme data management’ journey in the ‘Pension providers and schemes' tab. Your request will be reviewed by the PDP change and release manager and you will be informed of the outcome within 5 working days

How to format the data in your file

CSV file

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.

JSON file

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.

File error messages

If there are errors with your file uploads you will get an error message for each error. These break down into 5 types:

• registration code check error
• holdername error
• holdername duplicate error
• connection date error
• pension provider or scheme name error
• view endpoint error (JSON only)
• PAT refresh endpoint error (JSON only)

Registration code check error

This can appear for the following reasons:

• registration code missing
• registration code incorrect
• regulator number missing
• regulator number incorrect
• regulator body missing
• regulator body incorrect
• the combination of regulator body, regulator number and registration code is incorrect

Holdername error

This can appear for the following reasons:

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

Holdername duplicate error

This can appear for the following reason:

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

Connection date error

This can appear for the following reasons:

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

Pension provider or scheme name error

This can appear for the following reason:

• the pension provider or scheme name is missing

View endpoint error (JSON only)

This can appear for the following reason:

• 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 for the following reason:

• the PAT refresh endpoint is missing
• the PAT refresh endpoint does not match the PAT refresh endpoint held for the organisation

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 using the bulk upload via CSV method.

You can add multiple holdernames per pension provider or scheme when using 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).

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Changelog

Last updated:07/05/2025