British Steel advice firm applies to cancel regulatory authorisation

The Middlesbrough-based firm became the tenth firm top stop carrying out pension transfers as a result of the British Steel saga.

According to its Financial Services Register entry, it applied to cancel its regulatory authorisation on 12 December 2019.

It first became public knowledge Acklam had altered its pension transfer permissions in a letter sent from Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) director of supervision Megan Butler to Work and Pensions Select Committee chair Frank Field. 

At the time that letter was revealed in 2018 the firm's managing director Geoffrey Bollands told PA: "We decided to withdraw our DB permissions because of the bad publicity surrounding them at the moment. All we've done is voluntarily changed our position. We stopped doing DB transfer business, we withdrew from doing it - we changed our permissions with the FCA."

He said the firm had done defined benefit (DB) transfers in the past but declined to comment on whether his firm had worked with any steelworkers. 

PA was unable to contact Bollands for comment on the firm cancelling its regulatory authorisation. 

Two coaches filled with steelworkers and their wives will descend on Westminster tomorrow (27 February) for a three-hour summit with MPs and regulatory bodies to discuss their compensation.

Hundreds of steelworkers were given poor advice to transfer out of their defined benefit scheme a couple of years ago, and since then, many adviser firms involved in advising steelworkers have lost pension transfer permissions, while some have closed down altogether.  

 

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