The time taken to transfer a pension between providers has remained steady over the past year, despite a significant increase in transfer volumes according to the latest data from Origo.
Their figures show that in the 12 months to the end of June 2022 it took an average of 13.3 days to transfer a pension. This is marginally faster than the 13.5 days it took for the 12-month period ending end of March 2022.
However Origo’s figures also show that the volume of pension transfers has risen in recent years with a 64 per cent increase when compared to data for 2018 – prior to the Covid pandemic.
Origo CEO Anthony Rafferty says: “Pension transfer times as measured by the Origo Transfer Index, have suffered since the beginning of the pandemic but since October 2021, the average transfer time across the OTI has stabilised at a little over 13 calendar days, although many are carried out within minutes.
“Given the far higher volume of transfers being dealt with now than four years ago, this can be seen to reflect positively on the 28 participants in this index.”
He adds that participation in the index is on a voluntary basis. This index measures both the overall transfer time, where the provider may not have control over the entire process, but also gives an average for ‘simpler’ transfers, where the provider has complete control over the transfer process.
The latter took an average across the group of 11.4 calendar days in the 12-month period to end of June. This was the same figure as that recorded for the 12 months to the end of March 2022.
Rafferty adds: “It is in everyone’s interests that transfers are executed as quickly as possible and Origo’s automated transfer service has been instrumental in helping to reduce times significantly since it was launched in 2008. We continue to work with the industry to help bring transfer times down wherever possible.”
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