The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) is planning a voluntary mediation service to resolve the issues experienced by schemes during the transfer of administration services from one provider to another
PASA’s mediation service will be voluntary and non-binding, seeking to bring all three parties (the scheme, ceding and receiving administration providers) together for practical and fair solutions in line with good industry practice. The mediators will be independent of administration firms to avoid conflict of interest and PASA intends to publish details of the scheme for formal launch in January
Margaret Snowdon, chair of PASA said: ‘Changing administrators might be a relatively rare occurrence, but when it does happen the process must be smooth, safe and hassle free for all concerned – which is only possible when the ceding and receiving administrators work in co-operation.’
In 2013 PASA published its code of conduct on administration provider transfers, and Snowdon said the introduction of a mediation service is a natural extension of its work in this area.
‘As well as empowering administrators to be the best they possibly can be, we want trustees to know they can rely on PASA membership as a means of indicating the quality of service provision - which starts with appointment and exit processes,’ Snowdon said.
She announced that PASA was giving notice that from 1 January 2018, members will be required to comply with the code, and PASA will be interceding if a need for improvement is identified around unreasonable delays, fees or expectations.
Report by Pat Sweet
