The proportion of defined benefit pension transfers with scam red flags has fallen for the fourth month in a row but remain a "cause for concern for trustees and sponsors", according to XPS Pensions Group.

The firm's Transfer Watch revealed that 46 per cent of transfers showed at least one warning sign of a pension scam in September.

This represents a 1 percentage point decline from August, when 47 per cent of transfers showed at least one warning sign of a scam.

XPS’s Transfer Value Index also showed that whilst transfer values had remained near the record high of £259,000 recorded in August for most of September, this fell to £251,000 in the last 10 days of the month.

The fall in transfer values was attributed to a sharp increase in yields on government bonds.

The Transfer Activity Index, meanwhile, has remained "stable", with an annualised rate of 62 members out of every 10,000 transferred their pension in September, the same rate as in August.

Commenting on the latest update, XPS Pensions Group partner, Mark Barlow, said: “While it is promising to see the level of pension scam flag cases continuing to fall, 46 per cent is still a high number of warning signs so potential scams continue to be a cause for concern for trustees and sponsors.”

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