Origo’s transfer platform Options Transfers is planning to report more detailed management information (MI) about its members under new measures brought in by the service.
The community of about 60 organisations will provide monthly reports detailing each organisation's performance in the key steps of pension transfers both at the ceding and receiving ends.
So far Origo has merely reported average transfer times across its service.
But the organisation believes the change will help member firms assess their operational performance with the ultimate aim of reducing transfer times.
Origo's Options Transfer service is used by the major pension consultancies, life companies, platforms and self-invested personal pension (Sipp) providers.
The service currently has an average transfer time of 12 calendar days, with 85 per cent of transfers completing within this timescale, it said.
Firms' transfer performance can vary from minutes to weeks and largely depends on the type of pension being transferred, Origo said.
For instance, a self-invested personal pension invested in an illiquid asset such as commercial property can take longer to complete than a more straightforward arrangement.
Paul Pettitt, managing director of Origo, said: "Origo is dedicated to supporting the Options Transfers community and helping deliver improved customer outcomes.
“We believe these proposals to make even more detailed MI available to the community will help to further drive down transfer times and further improve the customer experience.”
Origo will share the more granular data with its member community at first.
But the service is also considering to make the information available publicly in the form of easy to understand information packs.
Origo is owned by 13 life and pension companies including Aegon, Aviva, Legal & General, Standard Life and Scottish Widows.
Ross Dunlop, head of platform proposition at Standard Life, said: “With pension freedoms increasing demand for transfers and the spotlight on transfer performance becoming ever brighter from the FCA, the industry needs to continuously look at ways of ensuring that we are delivering for consumers.
"These improvements to MI should help influence all member organisations of Options community to improve their performance, whilst providing a clearer picture of where significant improvement is required.”
carmen.reichman@ft.com
