Continuing action
Since the notice was issued against deVere UK in February 2017, several companies have been found to have fallen foul of the UK regulator and its crackdown on overseas pension transfers.
Intelligent Pensions, a Glasgow-based firm that specialises in building and managing retirement strategies, was ordered to “cease to provide advice in relation to the transfer, or conversion, of safeguarded benefits under a pension scheme to flexible benefits”, effective from 30 May 2017.
There was no specific mention of a particular FMSA notice being issued against Intelligent Pensions.
Regulatory toolkit
The UK watchdog added that it has additional powers at its disposal to vary or cancel a firm’s permission, whether at the FCA’s discretion (55J) or at the request of the firm (55H).
The regulator confirmed that neither tool had been used during 2016/17.
In addition to regulatory action, the FCA also uses audits and thematic reviews to assess companies and ensure compliance.
Selectapension, a UK firm that writes third-party Qrops transfer reports, suspended its defined benefit pension transfer business following an FCA audit.
The Selectapension Bureau Service (SBS) provides report writing and advice services for pension transfers for financial advisers.
A company spokesperson said: “The regulator recommended making some changes to processes which we are currently implementing. Full permissions remain in place while CFPML are working with the regulator on their ongoing review.
“We took the decision to suspend the SBS service for new pension transfer requests so the partner firm could deal with the outstanding backlog and to allow [our outsource advice partner] CFPML to update their processes.”
