Eight financial advice firms have failed to submit a response to the FCA’s marketwide probe into DB transfers, a freedom of information request submitted by RP’s sister title Professional Adviser has revealed.
In the final quarter of last year the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) sent questionnaires to 2,868 firms holding pension transfer permissions.
The regulator’s survey asked in-depth questions about defined benefit (DB) transfers carried out by each firm, such as how many clients the firm had advised to transfer their DB pension, the average value, the number of insistent clients the firm has dealt with, and the number of clients introduced through unregulated introducers.
The firms had until 3 December to provide the regulator with the requested information, but many missed the regulator’s deadline.
PA’s freedom of information request revealed some 130 firms missed the deadline set by the FCA, requested additional time and provided their response within a week. A further 13 firms responded later than one week after the deadline.
‘Appropriate action’
To date, eight firms have failed to submit responses to the financial watchdog altogether.
The FCA told Professional Adviser it would, depending on individual circumstances, take “appropriate action” in respect of firms that failed to comply with the information requirement.
The financial watchdog will analyse the information it has gathered from the survey, ikt said, and then start a “wide-ranging programme of activity” with firms in 2019.