The UK’s pension transfer market has returned to “business almost as usual” with a less than 5 per cent drop in transfers over H1 2020, according to Origo.

Second quarter data from the Origo Transfer Index showed that more than 347,000 transfers were completed through the Origo Transfer Service in the first six months of 2020, compared to 365,000 in the same period in 2019, a reduction of less than 5 per cent.

For the year ended 30 June, the average ceding transfer time came in at 9.4 calendar days, just above the 8.8 day average for the 12 months ended 31 March.

For simpler cases, the average was 7.3 days for the year ended 30 June and 7.0 days for the year ended 31 March.

Origo managing director, Anthony Rafferty, said: “The imposition of lockdown across the UK saw pension providers’ usual processes significantly disrupted, which had an inevitable initial impact on the transfer market.

"This saw a temporary increase in transfer times as the market adjusted to the new environment, but following that brief initial period, it has been business ‘almost as usual’."

Rafferty added that “the ability of the industry to maintain transfer performance is due to the effective response of providers and financial advice firms to the crisis” and predicted that the “overall transfer market will remain robust in 2020”, assuming that lockdown restrictions continue to be eased.

The company with the fastest average transfer time during the 12 months ended 30 June was NFU Mutual with 5.2 days, though it is worth noting that 95.2 per cent of its transfers were “simple transfers”.

Origo Transfer Service Steering Group chair, Colin Campbell, said the control of transfer times during the pandemic was “testament to the efficiency of providers’ systems and operations”, adding that automation improvements meant providers had the ability to “maintain operations at the same high level”.

Share Story: