Data from consultancy XPS showed that the Coronavirus pandemic seems to be causing an increase in the proportion of red flags being identified at the point of pension transfer.

According to the data, 38% of transfers showed signs of possible scams at the start of the first lockdown in April.

October data from XPS Pension Group’s Transfer Watch also saw transfer values moving marginally over the month and activity increasing slightly.

Average transfer values in October were £257,000 in comparison to £256,000 in September. This compared to £246,000 in January.

The Transfer Activity Index increased from 0.52% in September to 0.62% in October. This compared to 1.03% in January.

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XPS Pension Group’s Transfer Watch monitors how market developments have affected transfer values for a typical pension

Belmayne says it is taking its campaign for fairer industry regulation to Westminster with the help of local MP Lee Rowley.

Mr Rowley, who worked previously in financial services, is to write to industry regulators and the National Audit Office expressing concern about the actions of the FCA and raise the issue with the Treasury Select Committee, Belmayne said.

The firm, a member of LinkedIn lobbying group Financial Planners United, is urging an urgent review of the FSCS funding model.

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The company says on top of a unexpected FSCS levy bill this year of £2,000 it has also been hit with a 300% increase in the cost of professional indemnity insurance and a 76% increase in FSCS and FCA charges in

If we were living in America someone would probably have made a Hollywood movie about their humble accountancy roots to fabulous riches story; but sadly we’re not.

Today the founders of Hargreaves Lansdown both live relatively quietly in a very unassuming British sort of way, trying not to make the headlines too much. Stephen Lansdown lives quietly in Guernsey and his business partner, the rather more outspoken Peter Hargreaves, in his comfortable home looking after his garden and business interests.

They have been in the news this week after Stephen Lansdown cashed in just over a £100m of his remaining stake in the business to fund refurbishment of his hotel in Guernsey and pay for some development work on a sports stadium he owns in Bristol, the home of Hargreaves

In a paper published this morning, the FCA said that increasing the fees would act as a barrier to market entry and would help “redress the balance of cost recovery” away from existing fee-payers.

If its proposals had been implemented in 2019, the regulator said it would have seen funds from applications increase from £6.2m to £12.8m, a rise of 103%.

In 2019 application fees covered 33% of the cost of authorisations at the regulator, under the new system this would have been 67%.

However, the proposals to increase applications fees would still not recover the full cost of processing applications. Under the proposed system, the consultation paper said 20% of the cost would be passed to existing fee-payers via periodic fees.

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Application fees for new firms