The Role of Structured Data in Pension Regulation: Moving Beyond PDFs and Excel

Pension regulators worldwide are entering a period of radical digital transformation, moving decisively away from fragmented, manual, and retrospective practices. In 2025, the stakes have never been higher: over 60% of schemes surveyed by PFRDA, TPR, and EIOPA now handle trillions in assets that underpin national retirement security. For citizens, the accuracy, transparency, and agility of pension supervision translate directly into lifelong financial outcomes. 

Manual processes-Excel sheets, PDFs, and late submissions-continue to threaten effective governance, erode trust, and open regulatory gaps. A single error can ripple into systemic risk, while slow detection makes proactive supervision almost impossible. As Paul Neville, Executive Director of Digital, Data and Technology at The Pensions Regulator (TPR), stated in July 2025, “The challenge now is for the pensions industry to… raise its game on data quality, adopt smarter digital tools, and embrace innovation that benefits savers”.  

Structured, machine-readable data is more than a technical upgrade—it is the foundation of modern pension governance. By using standards such as XBRL, regulators can access timely, comparable, and high-quality data, closing oversight gaps and improving risk monitoring. TPR’s 2025 Data Strategy describes its vision: “We’re imagining a future where data acts as a catalyst for pensions innovation, transparency and regulatory effectiveness, benefiting savers and enabling efficiency”. 

This year brought dramatic legislative and operational shifts. The UK’s Data Act (June 2025) legally requires schemes to provide members and pension regulators with instantly accessible digital records, ending the era of inaccessible PDFs and error-prone spreadsheets. India’s launch of PFRDA CONNECT in August 2025 is equally ambitious, creating a centralized public portal that drives transparency, member inclusion, and frictionless service delivery. 

At a European level, EIOPA’s April 2025 update reinforced XBRL taxonomies and harmonized supervisory platforms, setting up a compliance baseline that other markets are now rapidly adopting. These developments signal a global consensus: only structured reporting can deliver efficiency and trust regulators and savers’ demand. 

Structured formats like XBRL are not just about digital filings. They address real-world challenges faced by modern regulators: 

• Radical Transparency: Schemes can now provide real-time, granular data on investments, funding ratios, membership, and compliance- improving cross-scheme comparability and speeding up supervisory decisions.  

• Data Portability and Accessibility: The UK’s Data Act requires pension data to be transferable and immediately accessible, empowering members and simplifying audits.  

• Accuracy and Validation: Standardized formatting reduces manual error rates, while real-time rule-based validation prevents risk before it enters the system.  

• Strategic Analytics: Dashboards powered by clean, timely data enable regulators to identify anomalies, forecast risks, and target interventions precisely moving the sector from lagging indicators to predictive, intelligence-driven regulation.  

Initiatives in the UK, India and Europe show that digital transformation is not just about replacing paper-it’s about delivering value to every stakeholder. Pension regulators now deploy AI-powered analytics to flag risks, guide intervention, and streamline decision-making. “TPR is unlocking the transformative power of digital, data and technology to deliver a regulatory approach which delivers better outcomes for savers,” Neville said at the launch of the Pensions Data and Digital Working Group. 

Pension authorities should invest in cloud-native, AI-enabled platforms and member dashboards, leveraging collaboration with tech partners to accelerate innovation and usability. 

These reforms underline the urgent need for scalable digital solutions. While national initiatives like PFRDA CONNECT demonstrate ambition, pension regulators worldwide need platforms that can unify reporting, automate compliance, and deliver actionable insights- this is where iFile, an end-to-end electronic filing platform trusted by over 30 regulators worldwide, comes in. 

Distinct from general regulatory modernization, iFile is designed to streamline data collection and supervision, enabling regulators to collect, validate, and analyze any type of data from the entities they oversee – whether financial, statistical, compliance-related, or custom-defined.  

• Unified Structured Reporting: iFile collects data across all formats (XBRL, CSV, web forms), consolidating fragmented supervision into a single, compliant digital pipeline. It’s designed for seamless onboarding-even for schemes with limited tech resources.  

• Instant, Rule-Based Validation: Reports are auto-checked, reducing errors and eliminating days of manual review. Regulators receive only clean, corrected data-maximizing time for strategic oversight. 

• Supervisory Dashboards: All incoming data points are visualized in customizable dashboards. Leaders can drill down to scheme details or monitor ecosystem-wide trends-turning information into insight.  

• Scalability and Resilience: Cloud infrastructure supports hundreds of reporting entities and adapts to evolving formats and requirements, protecting regulatory continuity. 

• Audit-Ready, Secure Communications: Secure two-way messaging and digital trails ensure that every correction, inquiry, or compliance update is logged; facilitating accountability and rapid dispute resolution. 

As the UK, India, and the EU shift to digital mandates, choosing a flexible and future-ready platform is imperative. Pension regulators should evaluate platforms against the latest compliance needs and member demands-prioritizing those, like iFile, which unify structure, automation, and real-time analytics. 

iFile enables immediate compliance with new laws, simplifies reporting, and provides a member-first engagement layer. Sector leaders tout measurable benefits-cost reductions, higher compliance, and new member trust-strengthening the strategic case. 

The world of pension supervision is changing–fast. Structured data and digital platforms are foundational, transforming not only the regulator’s role but also the member’s experience. As Paul Neville notes, “Better data combined with saver-focused digital solutions will mean clearer choices, fewer risks, and more confidence in the financial future”.