STAR, the joint venture from Criterion and TeX, is set to announce its awards scheme later this week, rewarding good transfer performance with bronze, silver, and gold accreditations.
The two independent and not-for-profit organisations officially launched STAR in January 2019 to tackle the issue of the amount of time it takes to transfer savings, investments and pensions electronically from one company to another.
The industry has faced criticism for its inability to transfer in a timely manner. Consumers have become used to transfers taking many weeks, often months, to complete, which is unacceptable compared with other sectors within financial services. STAR accreditation is designed to measure and accredit transfer performance across the industry.
Transfers involve platforms, insurers, fund managers, re-registration and transfer intermediaries, custodians, third party administrators and trustees. It also falls across multiple regulatory jurisdictions, with the FCA, Pensions Regulator and Department of Work and Pensions, all having an interest in different elements of the system. With this complex ecosystem, the STAR initiative was introduced as an alternative to regulation or legislation, to enable the industry to voluntarily get its house in order.
There are 76 organisations participating in STAR and 18 firms have been accredited. The categories of accreditation are:
· ISA and GIA
· Personal Pensions, SIPP and SSAS
· Occupational Pensions
· Asset Managers
