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Leading Platforms Request Fund Groups Support STAR Transfers and Re-Registration Initiative

Press Release

Leading Platforms Request Fund Groups Support STAR Transfers & Re-Registration Initiative

17 September 2020

Leading platforms have contacted their fund groups requesting they support the STAR Transfers & Re-Registration initiative. STAR is set to improve the outcomes for individuals wanting to transfer their assets, such as pensions and investments.

A growing community of 67 firms have signed up to the STAR initiative, which officially launched in January 2019 and has companies and organisations committed to shaping recognised, industry-wide standards to promote good practice in transfers. The STAR initiative is the only cross industry solution bringing together platforms, ISA managers, pension companies, asset managers and transfer agents, galvanising the industry, to put in place service level agreements to ensure quick, efficient and predictable transfers and re-registration. STAR was created as a collaboration between Criterion and TeX.

The platform businesses of Aegon, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown and Standard Life, have all written to the Fund Groups on their platforms requesting they support STAR. They have sent a very clear message to asset managers that they need them to support STAR, to meet the needs of their platform distributors, helping them improve outcomes for the end customer and to meet FCA Platform Market Study requirements.

The leading platforms are committed to embracing initiatives that are designed to enhance customer journeys and outcomes. As part of their focus on this, they have joined the STAR initiative and been integral to galvanising the industry in conjunction with a significant number of organisations. 

“We are absolutely delighted that the leading platforms have shown their support for the STAR initiative. It is too early to build STAR membership into fund due diligence processes, but the weight that platforms are putting behind this initiative signposts that they expect support for STAR to become a future due diligence / Fund Manager greement requirement. STAR is a voluntary framework and has achieved rapid legitimacy and momentum, due to the significant organisations participating, representing a cross section of the financial services industry. Not only will this initiative improve things for customers, but for participating organisations it will make them more efficient and save money in the process for the benefit of customers.”

Andrew Marker, Vanguard and STAR Chair

“We welcome the FCA allowing the industry to lead on developing solutions to improve the efficiency of transfers and re-registrations and the STAR initiative has helped to shape and define good practice in this area. Aegon is pleased to support STAR to demonstrate our commitment to customers and is calling on fund managers to sign-up to the initiative and support its industry-wide standards. Support from across the industry will help improve the quality of service and process efficiency for individuals who transfer assets across financial institutions.”

Tim Orton, Managing Director of Investment Solutions, Aegon

“As a platform, we believe it’s vital that customers are empowered to make decisions about their investments, including how and where they hold them. STAR will help to improve their experience of transferring assets between platforms, and we are fully committed to supporting the initiative.”

Anne-Marie Brennan, Head of Platform Products, Fidelity International

"People are increasingly required to take greater control of their finances, but kinks in the plumbing behind the scenes mean transfers of their investments and pensions take far too long. HL are by no means perfect but are committed to working with the industry to speed up transfer times, re-designing our approach to meet the high standards of practice identified by STAR. Helping people’s money move smoothly between providers works if all of the industry pull together, which is why we’ve written to a group of asset managers encouraging them to sign up too.

Nathan Long, Interim Head of Policy, Hargreaves Lansdown

“As a key enabler to supporting the FCA’s Policy Statement PS19-29 on Making Transfers Simpler, the STAR initiative has Standard Life’s full support and we are actively encouraging fund providers distributing via Standard Life platforms to sign-up to deliver a cross-industry framework of good practice for improving customer experience when moving money from one financial institution to another.”

Jenny Davidson, Head of Investment Technology Solutions, Standard Life

The Steering Group is part of the effective governance of STAR, and meets monthly. The Implementation Phase of the Initiative started in March 2020, to allow the members to agree an approach to deliver STAR Reporting and an opportunity to discuss change requests and common challenges they may face.

Endorsed by The Transfers and Re-registration Industry Group (TRIG), STAR will deliver a cross-industry framework of good practice for improving customer experience in moving their investments from one financial institution to another. In December 2019, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed it was happy with progress made by the industry through the STAR initiative. The FCA will continue to monitor the initiative in 2020 and consider further action if necessary. The FCA has encouraged firms not already involved in this initiative to consider taking part as a way of improving the switching process and achieving better outcomes for consumers.

The output of the STAR initiative will be a quarterly industry index and an annual accreditation scheme of bronze, silver and gold for performance against Transfer and Re-Registration service level agreements to ensure transparency; so that customers and financial advisers can compare the performance of platforms and investment managers ensuring performance can be evidenced and rewarded.

Notes

For further information please contact:

Matthew Dransfield
Commercial and Marketing Director
Criterion
0773 765 0010
media@criterion.org.uk

About STAR

STAR was created as a collaboration between Criterion and TeX, combining the industry-reach, unique strengths, experience and shared ambition of the two not-for-profit organisations.

Criterion was formed for the industry in July 2017, as an independent, not-for-profit industry body providing Standards and Governance services. It was originally part of Origo Services Ltd and has been publishing process and integration standards for over 25 years. Criterion is uniquely positioned to facilitate and drive cross-industry engagement, helping organisations achieve higher levels of collaboration, reduce costs and achieve better outcomes for their consumers.

TeX is a not-for-profit organisation which works with the industry to ensure that the maximum benefit is provided to all members. This new company is financially independent from TISA but benefits from being linked to the TISA brand through name, the expertise provided by the two corporate entity directorships and the administrative support provided by TISA.

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SERVICING AGREEMENT

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1. APPLICANT COVERED BY THIS REGISTRATION.
Please note this registration will not be processed if Step 1 has not been completed.
If your organisation is acting only as an affiliate, you do not need to complete Step 2.
2a. CHOOSE YOUR BRAND
STAR manages the administration of third-party access to the portal, rather than the member firm. This allows for a smoother transition for the member firm and allowing immediate access to the supplier to submit MI on their behalf. STAR will hold an approved list of users per supplier, which will be allocated to your account at the point of registration. This ensures each ‘external’ user has the same access across all their client accounts. Supplier access is restricted and they do not have any ability to see any company information for any client other than what they submit on your behalf. You as the member control access for any other users within your organisation. We will include a more detailed description about the user access on your welcome email and it is clearly defined as part of the User Guide.
STAR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER FOR FIRST BRAND
This person will be the main contact for all notices and other formal communications under this agreement and will be responsible for the administration of the members portal access (including without limitation the providing, updating and removing of authorised User access to the portal during the Term).
2b.
STAR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER FOR THE SECOND BRAND
This person will be the main contact for all notices and other formal communications under this agreement and will be responsible for the administration of the members portal access (including without limitation the providing, updating and removing of authorised User access to the portal during the Term).
2c.
STAR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER FOR THE THIRD BRAND
This person will be the main contact for all notices and other formal communications under this agreement and will be responsible for the administration of the members portal access (including without limitation the providing, updating and removing of authorised User access to the portal during the Term).
2d.
STAR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER FOR THE FOURTH BRAND
This person will be the main contact for all notices and other formal communications under this agreement and will be responsible for the administration of the members portal access (including without limitation the providing, updating and removing of authorised User access to the portal during the Term).
3. INVOICE INFORMATION
Invoices are sent by email as standard, if a printed invoice is required please note the address and your requirements in the additional information section.
4. DECLARATION
Before we can process your Brand Registration a STAR Servicing Agreement needs to be signed. Your signatory must be duly authorised for and on behalf of the organisation named in this application.
We only require one signed STAR Servicing Agreement which will cover all brands that you wish to register. Upon completion of this form we will check our records to ensure an agreement hasn't already been signed, if so a new contract will not be sent to your signatory.
STAR will email the servicing contract to the signatory email address (provided below) through our electronic platform Yoti. This declaration must be signed in order for your application to complete, once we receive the signed agreement we will instruct our finance department to issue your invoice.

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