Electronic transfers and re-registrations have continued to increase during the third quarter of 2014, both in terms of the number of participants and the volume of transfers, according to Altus Business Systems.
Transfer volumes have now risen by 10 per cent since Q2 2014.
Experts conducting Altus’ latest transfer and re-registration market update for the third quarter have reported two significant developments within the space.
These include the first pension transfers using ‘open standards’ under the TeX legal framework and the first intermediate unit holders/custodians supporting electronic re-registrations.
The firm said it had also witnessed “significant” industry progress in terms of a reduction in the volume of rejections, resulting in “more transfers completing in a timely and efficient manner over the last few months”.
Altus highlighted a few of the key events over the quarter:
• Over the quarter, 35 providers across adviser platforms, direct to consumer, wealth managers and Isa plan managers are now participating.
• Fourteen of the top 20 adviser platforms are participating covering over 80 per cent of assets under administration.
• Seven direct to consumer platform and wealth managers are now participating, and 13 Isa plan managers.
• Some 62 fund managers representing almost 90 per cent of UK funds under management are also participating.
Howard Finnegan, head of sales and marketing at Altus, said: “Towards the end of the year we predict that a number of the key direct to consumer platforms and execution only providers will start supporting electronic transfers and re-registrations.
“Additionally, and following the first live pension transfers using open standards, we also expect to see a steady rise in the number of overall pension transfer participants meaning the next few months should have plenty of exciting industry developments in store.”
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
