Major pension transfer business Selectapension Bureau Services will not resume taking on new defined benefit (DB) transfer cases until next year.
The provider will, however, push ahead with the cases which already have recommendations to transfer, as well as dealing with cases where pension savers have requested transfers, from next month, said Peter Bradshaw, national accounts director at Selectapension.
Last July, Selectapension stopped all DB pension transfer business.
In a statement the company revealed it had recently undergone a review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of its outsourcing advice partner, CFPML.
Following that, the regulator recommended making some changes to processes which the company stated it is "currently implementing".
Mr Bradshaw said: “We will have to wait until the New Year to see the outcome of the review the FCA is doing.”
Selectapension’s goal is, however, to continue to use CFPML services, he added.
DB transfers have been soaring, as savers seek to take advantage of sky-high transfer values and to move their nest eggs into defined contribution schemes in order to access them via the pension freedom rules, which were introduced in 2015.
Figures from The Pensions Regulator found that up to 80,000 DB pension transfers were made in the year ending 31 March while data from Mercer, the professional services group, suggest £50bn has been taken out of company pension schemes over the last two years.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) presented this week new figures on DB transfers which flagged widespread problems in the advice given to people seeking to transfer their pensions.
Advice in more than half of the transfers where the recommendation was to move the retirement pot was unsuitable or unclear.
From a total of 88 DB transfers analysed by the watchdog since October 2015, only 47 per cent were suitable.
The regulator found that 17 per cent were unsuitable and in the remaining 36 per cent suitability was unclear.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
