Pension investments in the third quarter dropped for the first time this year, down by £0.38 billion.

Inflows for the quarter (including transfers) stood at £7.98 billion, a fall of 4.6% on the previous quarter, but up 7.7% (£0.57 billion) year-on-year.

The data was provided by Equifax Touchstone, a financial intermediary and customer profiling provider.

The company said its figures cover more than 90% of the UK’s leading life and pensions companies.

The results showed that SIPP sales (transfers and single premiums) were down 5.5% (£0.23 billion) compared to Q2, personal pensions fell 9.0% (£0.13 billion) and individual stakeholder pension investments plummeted by 65.0% to just £12.5 million.

Overall, new pension investments (excluding transfers) were £3.91 billion, down 8% (£0.34 billion) on Q2. Transfers were more resilient, down by 1.2% (£47.9 million) to £4.07 billion, marking the continued demand for investors to make adjustments to their retirement arrangements to access the right product for their needs.

John Driscoll, director at Equifax Touchstone, said: “Pension investments in the third quarter went against the upward trend seen so far this year, as market uncertainty and volatility from events including Brexit hit investor sentiment.

“Growth in pension inflows over the last two years has however emphasised the awareness clients have about the tax benefits of pensions, despite market volatility. Data from HMRC also of course confirms that many clients are continuing to take advantage of pension freedoms. As a result, we expect 2017 to remain a very active year for pensions.

“Transfers in particular are an interesting area to watch; we expect there will be further increases in transfer volumes as ‘insistent’ clients consider final salary transfers in order to access their savings.”