The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has closed more than half of its investigations into potential breaches of the pensions cold-calling ban but has not made any fines or arrests.
A ban on cold-callers in relation to pensions, which includes emails and texts, was introduced on January 9, 2019.
The ban is enforced by the ICO, which received new powers to fine bosses of companies which plague people with unsolicited cold-calls as much as £500,000.
FTAdviser understands that as of June 28, the ICO had opened 29 investigation into potential breaches of the ban, of which 15 have since been closed.
The ICO stated: "Since the introduction of the pensions cold-calling ban on 9 January 2019, the ICO has received several complaints and a number of investigations are ongoing."
However, the closed cases have not resulted in any fines, FTAdviser has learnt.
The cases were closed for a variety of reasons, for example the individual or company involved were based outside of the UK or they were not responsible for making the calls.
Meanwhile, in a letter to Labour peer Lord Bill McKenzie last month, Baroness Peta Buscombe, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for pensions, said the government was not finished with its task of stopping cold-calling in the pensions sector.
Baroness Buscombe said: "The government does not consider the pensions cold-calling ban a ‘job done’ and we will continue our efforts to review the effectiveness of the ban.
"The Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018 includes a provision that the secretary of state must keep under review whether a prohibition on unsolicited direct marketing in relation to consumer financial products and services other than pensions would be appropriate."
Also last month (June 10), XPS Pensions warned that it had seen a significant increase in the number of potential pension scams in the past year.
Ben Fisher, consulting actuary at XPS, said the number of cases that included warning signs of pension transfer scam activity increased from 13 per cent in June 2018 to 34 per cent in June 2019.
He said: "Over the past year, we have seen a rise in potential cases of hidden fees in transfers and also in cases where members do not recognise the IFA recorded on their paperwork.
"Fortunately, not all turn out to be scams, however it does show there is an increase in warning signs."
On the other hand, XPS stated that cases of cold-calling had halved compared with last year.
Paul Gibson, managing director at Granite Financial Planning, said it was "a real shame that the potential numbers of scams remains so high".
He said: "The cold calling ban whilst a good first step was never going to stop the issue completely.
"More publicity and vigilance by providers is to be welcomed but in reality the crooks are never going to disappear completely.”
amy.austin@ft.com
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