Member and client interests must be paramount when transferring pensions between administration providers, according to new guidelines.

The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has launched its Code of Conduct on Administration Provider Transfers, dealing with ceding and newly appointed administrators.

The code is designed to ensure the transition process between pension providers is conducted as efficiently as possible, and that transfers are not unnecessarily delayed, frustrated or rendered ineffective.

“PASA strongly believes the adoption of this code by the industry will significantly help raise standards when administration moves from one provider to another,” PASA chair Magaret Snowdon said.

PASA stated that for ceding administrators the “on-going routine administration during the transition period must not deteriorate.”

The ceding administrator should continue to complete regular admin tasks before an agreed transfer date, and any assessment reports of the condition of member data should be shown to the newly appointed administrator.

Ceding administrators are now expected to make expert staff available to new administrators along with benefit calculations. PASA warned that ceding administrators members can sometimes withhold member data, particularly concerning pro-formas and templates used to calculate member entitlements. These can be viewed as intellectual property that the administrator would not wish to pass on to the newly appointed administrator.

Member data can also be withheld in case ceding administrators need to defend against a complaint or legal claim for work done whilst they were administering the scheme.

“A change of pensions administration provider can be triggered by a variety of circumstances,” Snowdon said. “Mergers or acquisitions might lead to internal rationalisation of in-house teams, or the decision to outsource partially or completely from in-house to an external provider. Provider performance and competition may also provoke a change of provider.”

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