Stories of the week
1) Open Finance Steps Up: Pensions Without the Begging Letter
The FCA has set out its vision for Open Finance, and this time pensions are firmly in scope.
On 15 April 2026 the FCA published its vision for Open Finance, a direct extension of Open Banking that pulls pensions, investments, savings and mortgages into the same data-sharing model. The regulator will work through its Smart Data Accelerator and PRISM Taskforce during 2026, a discussion paper on the first formal scheme is expected in Q4 2026, and HM Treasury will help shape the longer-term framework through 2027.
What’s the problem? Right now, connecting a pension to a modern app (think budgeting tools) usually requires a physical Letter of Authority, otherwise every time you add it to the app it disappears the next day or the feed never updates. Aviva and Scottish Widows are the worst offenders, which is why they get dropped from third-party apps almost as quickly as you authorise them. That friction is not an accident, they don’t want you sharing that information freely.
What’s changing? Open Finance would force these providers to share pension data via API, the same way Open Banking forced the high-street banks to open up current account data. Less paperwork, more transparency, and a realistic path to one app showing every pension you own.
The Wiseones Take: Open Banking worked because it removed the option to hide behind process. Pension providers have been hiding behind the LOA for years because the friction protects their book. Anyone who has tried to pull an Aviva or Scottish Widows pension onto a budgeting app already knows the game. If Open Finance actually lands with teeth, the incumbents who rely on inertia lose, and the saver finally wins.
2) ISAs Get a Swap: Private Markets In, Crypto Out (and Nowhere to Hold It)
From April 2026, LTAFs are allowed inside a Stocks & Shares ISA, and crypto ETNs have been kicked out of it.
From 6 April 2026, Long-Term Asset Funds (LTAFs) can sit inside a Stocks & Shares ISA for the first time, and at the same time they have been removed from the Innovative Finance ISA. The day before, on 5 April 2026, crypto ETNs moved the other way: out of the Stocks & Shares ISA and into the IFISA only. There are roughly 420 Stocks & Shares ISA managers in the UK, and around 80 IFISA managers. Essentially none of the IFISA managers actually offer crypto ETNs. So the product technically exists in a wrapper that nobody sells.
What’s the problem? LTAFs are illiquid by design for private equity, private credit, property, etc aimed at professional investors. Monthly or quarterly dealing, suspension risk, and valuations that depend on the last private equity partner’s spreadsheet. Crypto ETNs are volatile, yes, but they are marked to market 24 hours a day at least and you can exit on a Tuesday afternoon.
What’s changing? The regulator has decided the illiquid product is fine for retail inside a mainstream tax wrapper. The relatively open one is not.
The Wiseones Take: The risk maths here is, to put it politely, bizarre. At least with crypto you know the price every second. With an LTAF, they could well start pausing redemptions as the industry has seen this year with other private asset funds. The march to push illiquid private-market assets into mainstream retail wrappers is exactly how the next “we cannot let you withdraw for six months” story gets written. We are not saying that Crypto is the safer or LTAFs are riskier. These are both high risk assets and either they are both in or both out. Make it make sense.
3) Standard Life Swallows Aegon UK: The Big Keep Getting Bigger
Standard Life,the grou threbranded romin Mach 2026, has agreed to acquire Aegon UK for £2bn, creating a retirement business with around £480bn of assets under administration and 16 million customers. Aegon, heading back to the US and rebranding as Transamerica, receives £750m in cash plus a 15.3% stake in the combined business. The deal is expected to close around the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.
Meanwhile, Cushon (the Master Trust workplace pension) is being passed around again. NatWest bought 85% for £144m in 2023. Two and a half years later, it is being sold on to WTW, with completion expected in the first half of 2026.
Zoom out across the last five years and the pattern is unmissable. Legal & General handed its personal investing book to Fidelity in 2021. Standard Life Aberdeen had already sold the Standard Life insurance business to Phoenix back in 2018, rebranded itself as Abrdn in 2021, then changed again to Aberdeen Group plc in 2025. In March 2026 Phoenix Group took the final step and adopted the Standard Life name for the whole listed group, so the brand is back where it started, just with a very different owner. Prudential’s UK life book became M&G at demerger in 2019. ReAssure got hoovered up by Phoenix in 2020. Ascentric was sold by Royal London to M&G in 2020, rebranded M&G Wealth Platform, and is now being shopped around again, maybe Royal London could buy it back. Embark went to Lloyds in 2022. Novia was bought by AnaCap in 2020 and merged into Wealthtime. The logos keep shuffling, but the actual number of independent firms running UK retirement money keeps shrinking.
What’s the problem? Advisers are calling this “provider shrinkflation”. Fewer genuine choices, bigger legacy books, less competitive pressure on fees, and default funds that quietly change when the brand on the letterhead does.
The Wiseones Take: Every deal gets pitched as “scale benefits for customers”. Six months later you are on hold to a different brand, with the same hold music, and the default fund has been quietly moved to the new parent’s house proposition. If you are on a workplace pension that has been sold twice in five years, it is worth checking what your default fund actually is now, and what the ongoing charge figure looks like after the dust has settled. Consolidation helps the acquirer’s margin. It does not always help you.
Rate watch
Bank of England Bank Rate: 3.75% ↔️(Held 19th March)
- UK mortgage rates (typical averages):
- 2-year fixed (75% LTV): ~5.26% ↔️ 0.00% Up 0.67% from last year
- 5-year fixed (75% LTV): ~5.24% 🔽 0.01% Up 0.69% from last year
- UK GDP +1.3% February 2025 to February 2026
- UK Inflation Rates year on year
- UK CPI – 3.0% 🔽 0.4%
- UK CPIH – 3.2% (including housing costs) 🔽0.2%
- UK RPI – 3.6% 🔽0.4%
Upcoming Dates For Your Diary
April 2026
- 30 April – Bank of England MPC interest rate decision
May/June 2026
- 31 May – Employer P60 deadline
- 18 June – Bank of England MPC interest rate decision
July 2026
- 6 July – FCA commodity derivatives reforms go live
- 30 July – Bank of England MPC interest rate decision
Wise Money Tips
- Use your ISA allowance before it resets. Up to £20,000 across ISAs in 2026/27, frozen until April 2031. Don’t forget Junior ISA £9,000 and Lifetime ISA £4,000, both also frozen to April 2031.
- Dividend tax rose on 6 April 2026. Ordinary rate 8.75% to 10.75%, upper rate 33.75% to 35.75%. Additional rate stays at 39.35%. If you hold income shares outside a wrapper, it is worth stress-testing whether ISA or pension sheltering is now worth it.
- Top up pensions and check carry forward. Annual allowance is £60,000 for 2026/27. Tapering can apply for higher earners. Unused allowance from the previous three tax years can often be carried forward.
- VCT timing matters this year. From 6 April 2026, VCT income tax relief dropped to 20% (down from 30%). VCT relief cannot be carried back, so the tax year you subscribe in is the one that counts.
- EIS and SEIS still allow carry back. Unlike VCTs, EIS and SEIS income tax relief can usually be carried back to the previous tax year, which is useful if your tax bill is lumpy.
- Use the small but real allowances. Personal Savings Allowance (£1,000 for basic rate, £500 for higher rate, £0 for additional rate), Marriage Allowance transfer, and the £3,000 annual IHT gifting exemption (resets each tax year, doesn’t roll over).
- State Pension uplift from 6 April 2026. Full new State Pension: £230.25 to £241.30 per week. Basic State Pension: £176.45 to £184.90 per week.
- Check your NI record, especially age 50+. A top-up year can materially improve your State Pension outcome. Pull your forecast and identify gaps before making any irreversible year-end decisions.
- Review your mortgage at least six months before the fixed rate ends. Most lenders let you lock in a new deal in advance.
- Check your workplace pension default fund every 12 months. Defaults change quietly when providers rebrand or get sold.
- Never move money on the back of a cold call, a WhatsApp tip, or a social media ad. Every scam starts that way.
Thanks for reading. See you next Friday.