The UK’s financial regulators have claimed that by working together they achieved better outcomes for members of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) as well as savers thinking of transferring their pensions.

The claims are included in the Wider Implications Framework annual report for 2022 published today by the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The framework, relaunched in January 2022, is supposed to help the UK's different financial regulators work together to “achieve better outcomes for consumers, firms and the industry as a whole.”

That came into effect last year with the FOS, the FCA and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) working together to engage former BSPS members and help them understand whether and how to complain, the report said.

The Financial Ombudsman Service, FCA, FSCS and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) also worked with The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) on the handling of British Steel complaints, including attending a roundtable discussion for British Steel pension members.

It added: “Our consumer engagement strategy resulted in a number of former BSPS members becoming aware of the potential need to complain and who to complain to.”

The Wider Implications Framework was produced and agreed by the FOS, the FCA, the FSCS, TPR and the Money and Pensions Service (Maps).

The framework aimed to ensure all members can be involved where relevant, to "maximise collaboration without compromising the ability to act quickly and robustly."

The report listed the framework’s key achievements in 2022 as:

• working together to ensure consumers who were unsuitably advised to transfer out of the British Steel Pension Scheme are aware of their rights and to make the complaints or claim journey as accessible as possible;
• sharing information on complaints about mortgage standard variable rates which ensured fair and consistent complaint outcomes with redress paid if appropriate; and
• joint work to ensure that the Financial Ombudsman Service is prepared for the introduction of FCA’s Consumer Duty, including internal training sessions and engagement with external stakeholders to understand their concerns.

It also covered the issue of pension transfers which came to the fore in spring 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic was causing market volatility and savers risked making hasty decisions on their pensions which could have crystallised losses.

The report said: “TPR, the FCA and MaPS worked together, in partnership with the Pension Protection Fund, against the risks associated with increased pension transfer requests caused by redundancies or market conditions.

“Building on the established collaboration work, the regulators and MaPS quickly introduced a Covid-19 specific joint Cash Equivalent Transfer Value letter for savers looking to transfer from a defined benefit to a defined contribution pension and worked jointly with scheme trustees associated with companies deemed at risk.”

Their actions resulted in “savers being warned of the risk of transferring at this time and urged them to seek free impartial guidance,” the report said.