Hargreaves Lansdown is the pension provider with the slowest defined contribution provider transfer times, averaging 30.5 days, according to research from Origo.

The financial services company was the slowest of the surveyed providers, while NFU Mutual was the fastest, averaging 4.8 days.

In response to the survey, Hargreaves Lansdown head of policy, Tom McPhail, said: “It is important to note the published Origo data doesn’t include those firms who have not given permission for their figures to be published, and it only covers those transfers which go through Origo.

“Hargreaves Lansdown is absolutely committed to executing fast and reliable transfers and we’re investing a lot of resources internally to bring down our transfer times.”

The research assessed transfers of a DC pension pot from one provider to another and found that the average transfer time, across all surveyed firms, was 9.2 days, down from 9.3 in June 2018

Origo’s data, which featured 28 firms, investigated transfer times between June 2018 and June 2019, and consisted of more than 80 per cent of all completed transfers on Origo’s service.

Liberty SIPP was the second slowest, averaging 23.2 days, followed by Yorsipp Limited, which averaged 20.7 days.

Canada Life was found to be the second quickest, with its transfer times averaging 5.1 days, while MetLife averaged 5.8 days, making it the third fastest.

Commenting on the data, Origo managing director, Anthony Rafferty, said: “The government and the regulator have made it clear that they have their eyes on transfer performances and consumers deserve better.

“It is important that the industry responds to this and so the regular publication of performance data is a demonstration of the commitment to strive for, and maintain, faster transfer times.”

Transfer volumes through the Origo Transfer Service have increased by 20 per cent year-on-year to over 680,000. Origo said that this was primarily due to a rise of transfer volumes across the community as well as new companies, such as Nest, signing up to the transfer service.

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