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According to new research from The Annuity Clearing House (ACH), Windsor Life, which has in excess of £14bn in funds under management, is the worst offender, taking 10 weeks to transfer a pension fund to the policy holder's chosen annuity destination.

Also named and shamed in ACH's list of worst companies for fund transfers, are giant life companies Phoenix and Winterthur Life, Scottish Mutual and the Co-operative Insurance Services, which all take many weeks to make the transfers.

ACH found that an average transfer period at these providers took 51 days, 41 days, 40 days and 39 days respectively.

Steve Hunt, managing director at ACH, recently wrote to all the chief executive officers of the pensions giants appealing to them to dramatically cut down on transfer times.

Hunt said: "Foot dragging by major providers has frustrated many pensioners who now want to switch their pension funds and take advantage of one of the many excellent open market options, rather than stick with their provider.

"I have written to more than 30 of the top pension providers, highlighting the fact that the delays endanger the retirement income of many people and will often cause significant difficulties for people at an already very stressful time of their life.

"ACH is also determined to bring this matter to the attention of the Financial Services Authority in order to encourage the watchdog to clamp down on these appalling inefficiencies."

According to Hunt, transfer times are gradually improving to around three to four weeks, however, he believes this is still far too long.

He added: "These times include all sorts of delays from getting the right forms completed to getting the necessary certification across. In our view what is required is for industry-standard documentation compatible with all systems to be introduced."

The better providers in the survey included Zurich Assurance, Abbey Life and Virgin Money, with average transfer times of 18, 19 and 21 days respectively.

Phoenix and Windsor Life, however, each had an average transfer period of 51 days.