Criterion, a new not-for-profit industry body for standards and governance, has been created with Caroline Mansley as its first managing director.
The organisation was originally part of Origo which is owned by 13 life and pension companies, including Aegon, Aviva, Legal & General, Standard Life and Scottish Widows.
The newly independent group Criterion will lead the industry in agreeing standards and governance services set to revolutionise data movement and automation processes.
The Origo standards were established more than 25 years ago and underpin the exchange of data between organisations in the financial services Industry making it easier for product providers, platforms, administrators, portals and advisers to work with each other.
Criterion will now take forward and expand upon the existing standards and governance work, while Origo will focus efforts on operational services such as its options transfers (processing over £110bn since launch), unipass security and integration Hub services.
Iain Duffin, independent non-executive chair of Origo, will assume the same role within Criterion until the organisation is fully established.
One of Ms Mansley's first tasks, together with Mr Duffin, will be to appoint further independent non-executive board directors.
Ms Mansley said: “The financial services market is going through a period of rapid change and development, including new government led and regulatory initiatives.
"It is vitally important for the consumer that the industry can rely on a body that is independent, experienced and collaborative in its development of open standards.
"To enable this, we will work with all providers, platforms, schemes, third-party administrators, industry bodies, regulators and government to engender trust and enable better collaboration.”
Ms Mansley had a global executive role with AIG.
Immediately prior to joining Criterion, she was a director at BIB Ltd, providing independent advice to businesses and executive leaders on change management and organisational transformation.
She specialises in CRM transformation, programme governance and risk management.
She is also chair of the Scottish Sirens, Scotland’s professional netball team and is secretary of the ladies committee at Ratho Park Golf Club, Edinburgh.
stephanie.hawthorne@ft.com
