PensionsSep 27 2018

Salvus chief leaves for Scottish Widows

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Salvus chief leaves for Scottish Widows

Scottish Widows has appointed ex-Salvus Master Trust managing director Graham Peacock as its head of propositions of workplace savings.

This is a newly created role and Mr Peacock will work alongside Alison Nicolson, head of proposition development for corporate pensions at Scottish Widows.

He joins the company with more than 25 years of industry experience in workplace and personal pensions, including for the Carey Group, Close Brothers Asset Management, and Zurich.

Mr Peacock, who was most recently managing director at Salvus, said: "Scottish Widows is on an exciting journey broadening its appeal across the market, and I’m looking forward to being a part of its bright future as it dials up its workplace savings offering to meet the needs of a wider audience."

Jeff Sayers, managing director of pensions and investments at Scottish Widows, said: "Graham’s wealth of experience and focus on innovation will bring real value and build on our existing expertise, as part of our goal to create a market-leading UK retirement savings business."

During his time at Salvus, Mr Peacock was involved in submitting the firm's readiness review to The Pensions Regulator, as part of the new authorisation process for master trusts.

He told FTAdviser that the timeframe set out for authorisation was "horrendously challenging" but added the regulator had been "dynamic" in its feedback. 

Under the new registration process, master trusts will have to hold enough capital to cover the cost of a worst-case scenario, such as the cost of transferring to another scheme or of winding up, without charging members.

The government and the regulator have been discussing these new rules since 2016, which are expected to drive consolidation in the market.

The watchdog announced in March it would launch a readiness review in May to help these schemes prepare for formal application, which they will need to file if they want to continue to operate in the market.

Mr Peacock said: "The regulator is being dynamic and we have received feedback from TPR already as we submitted a readiness review which was optional.

"Industry-wide recommendations following the readiness review haven’t been published yet and the window for authorisation opens in October."

Figures published by the TPR earlier this month showed the number of master trusts that won’t apply for formal authorisation and will leave the market has risen to 24, equating to more than a quarter of those currently in the market.

Mr Peacock said: "It will likely be closer to the end of the year when TPR sees a flurry of submissions for authorisation. This is because cross referencing the response to the readiness review submission and making sure everything is above board is a very long process."

rosie.quigley@ft.com