Despite economic uncertainty, the figures suggest that the pension market is continuing to grow strongly, spurred by a boom in pension transfer business and Equifax predicts the pension transfer boom will continue.
Transfers across all products rose by 54.3% year-on-year (£2.2 billion) and 5% (£304.5 million) during the quarter to reach £6.4 billion. SIPP transfers increased from £3.5bn the previous quarter to top £3.7bn in the third quarter.
Equifax said pension investments overall increased by 2.8% (£363.7 million) from the previous quarter.
According to the data, which covers 90% of the UK’s leading life and pensions companies, total pension investments excluding transfers reached nearly £7 billion in Q3 2017, a marginal gain of 0.9% (£59.2 million) on the previous quarter and a significant increase of 78.9% (£3.1 billion) year-on-year.
Despite positive quarterly figures overall, total SIPP sales (excluding transfers) fell, decreasing by 4.1% on Q2 figures (£111.7 million).
Source: Equifax. Note: Pension Trans. reflects transfers into Personal Pensions only, not SIPPs or stakeholder pensions; Figures are representative and designed to illustrate trends – not all product providers submitting data to Equifax Touchstone can provide a breakdown between SIPP and flexible drawdown transfers; Figures do not include regular premiums.
John Driscoll, director at Equifax Touchstone, said: “Pension investments during the quarter have remained extremely positive, building on strong performance throughout the first half of the year. Inflows remained resilient to political and market uncertainty, buoyed by strong performance of stock markets.
“Although speculation leading up to the Autumn Budget may impact Q4 figures, the lack of legislative change within the final Budget will have ultimately stabilised the pension sector. In the final quarter of the year we expect to see high volumes of pension transfers persist; defined benefit transfers in particular will continue to soar as savers look to benefit from temptingly high transfer values.”