Cardiff-based financial advice firm Bartholomew Hawkins has been ordered to cease advising on defined benefit (DB) transfers by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Its entry on the FCA register said the firm must “cease all regulated activities relating to DB transfer business”, effective from 22 December.
The FCA confirmed to Professional Adviser the firm had its permissions revoked because of transfer advice it has given to British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) members.
Bartholomew Hawkins has been contacted for comment.
Following the attention the BSPS scheme has brought to DB transfers, the FCA said it had undertaken “significant information gathering” in order to identify firms that have been most active in advising consumers to transfer out of BSPS.
So far it has gathered information from 50 financial advice firms, 12 self-invested personal pension operators, and the BSPS scheme administrators. Based on that data, it has visited seven advice firms and requested files from a further four.
As a result of its work, Active Wealth, Mansion House, Pembrokeshire Mortgage, Retirement & Planning Services, Vintage Investment Services and West Wales Financial Services have all agreed immediately to cease defined benefit business.
Last month Active Wealth UK director Darren Reynolds failed to turn up to the Work and Pensions Committee hearing on British steelworkers’ pensions, when those close to the closure of the scheme gathered in Westminster to give evidence to MPs on the transfers out of the scheme.
‘Multi-firm supervision exercise’
Meanwhile in the summer of 2017, a freedom of information request submitted by Professional Adviser found the financial watchdog had looked into the DB transfer history of 92 firms as part of its multi-firm supervision exercise.
At the time, the watchdog said it was looking into firms that were undertaking what it considered to be “a lot of transfers” – though no specific number was set as a ‘trigger point for’ a review.
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