The volume of Defined Benefit (DB) pension transfers doubled to £21bn last year, newly-revealed figures have shown.

Figures, released by the FCA under the Freedom of Information Act, showed the value of DB to defined contribution transfers rose from £7.9 billion in 2016 to £20.8 billion in 2017.

The number of transfers in 2017 was up from 61,000 to 92,000.

The FCA’s data showed that £5.5bn was transferred out in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to £2.5bn over the same period on 2016.

The Pensions Regulator recently revealed, also via the Freedom of Information Act, that pension savers transferred £14.3bn out of DB schemes in the 2017/18 period.

The response showed there were “approximately 72,700” transfers out, but in reality the figure could be far higher, it said.

In its reply to the request, the TPR said: “Not all schemes reporting that transfers took place have reported exactly how many transfers they carried out and therefore taking into account non-responses, we estimate the actual figure to be in the region of 100,000.”

There were an estimated 80,000 transfers in the previous year although TPR figures showed they could only confirm 67,700 had taken place.