Members Portal
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Members Portal
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Questions and Answers

The long-term solution to improving customer experience of transferring savings and investments between companies by setting and measuring against a good practice framework.

A growing community of firms have signed up to the STAR initiative, which officially launched in January 2019 and has 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, providers, life companies and transfer agents and asset managers, to galvanise the industry in its goal.

STAR is a joint venture between Criterion and TeX and is provided by CT Holdings and Services Limited (CTHS). It operates as a not-for-profit private company, limited by guarantee.

The STAR remit is clearly defined and will:

  • Define the processes required to complete a transfer;
  • Specify good practice targets for each of those processes;
  • Measure, recognise and accredit performance excellence across the industry.

The fact of being officially recognised, accepted, or approved of, or the act of officially recognising, accepting, or approving of something.

Accreditation is a formal, third-party recognition of competence to perform specific tasks within agreed SLAs. It provides a means to identify a proven competency so that consumers can make an informed choice.

STAR Accreditation is designed to measure, recognise and accredit transfer performance excellence across the industry.

Accreditation Levels

  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Bronze


The STAR Accreditation Steering Group manages the framework for Accreditation.

Fundamental to the STAR initiative, is that organisations are accredited, dependent upon their performance.

The STAR Steering Group has agreed that an Accreditation Steering Group (ASG) should be established to manage STAR Accreditation. 

Purpose

The Purpose of the ASG is to manage the framework, process and maintenance for STAR Accreditation. Specifically, it includes:

  • agreeing the Accreditation Framework;
  • setting and managing the Accreditation timeline;
  • reviewing Accreditation thresholds on an annual basis;
  • validating accreditation levels set for STAR members;
  • defining and managing Accreditation marks;
  • creating and supporting an appeals process.

The ASG reports into the STAR Steering Group.

Membership

The ASG has around 20 members, which consist of STAR members from across the SLA workstreams and observers from industry.

All ASG members must be committed to contribute time and effort to support ASG activities. ASG members should act in the best interests of the industry and the STAR initiative rather than an individual company’s interest.

The output of the STAR initiative is an annual accreditation scheme of bronze, silver and gold, so that performance can be evidenced and rewarded.

MI is submitted monthly via the STAR portal for the following SLA product categories:

  • Core MI for Personal Pensions, SIPP & SSAS;
  • Core MI for ISA/GIA;
  • Core MI for Occupational Pensions;
  • Full MI for Asset Manager.


Members will receive a report, showing their performance against the aggregated total for their SLA and overall performance.

STAR requires a minimum of nine months of MI per SLA to assess accreditation, and 6 months of data reported ahead of the next annual accreditation. Therefore, if you are submitting MI in Q1, you will not receive your award until the next annual accreditation. This includes the analysis of data and the ratification by a sub-committee of the STAR Steering Group.

For more information on the accreditation approach, please read this paper.

STAR measures the performance of companies when executing transfers, providing an accreditation award that allows customers, their advisers and regulators with evidence of a members commitment to improve their performance.  

Any organisation involved in the transfer process and reporting of MI. This includes:

  • Platform providers.
  • Pension providers (Personal Pension / SIPP / Occupational DC). Please note that DB is not currently in scope.
  • Fund managers.
  • Transfer agents.
  • Greater certainty and speed for transfers.
  • Improved control for your customers when transferring.
  • Increased competition – with the FCA believing accreditation will have a positive impact on competition and allow smaller firms to enter the market.
  • Enable firms to demonstrate to regulators their commitment to good practice and to the continued development of industry standards.
  • Supports FCA / government thinking.
  • Recognition for delivering good practice.
  • The ongoing collection and publication of performance in executing transfers, as well as a list of the firms which have chosen to participate, will provide regulators and customers with clear evidence of how firms are behaving.
  • As well as having happier clients, participating firms will also benefit from greater certainty in dealing with counterparties, leading to fewer queries and lower administration costs.
  • Better communication, universal standards, continuous improvement and improved transparency.

STAR is not a regulator and does not have any legal or regulatory enforcement powers.

STAR does however have an ‘oversight’ function and works to ensure that those organisations’ it accredits meets industry agreed standards that are FCA, DWP and TPR endorsed, and supported by the wider industry, pensions ministers and government.

In April 2021, 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 2022 and consider further action if necessary.

Holding STAR accreditation is an indication of industry agreed standards and competency using specific agreed criteria around processes. It is in no way an overall endorsement of a product or service.

STAR is not-for-profit organisation and is endorsed by the FCA, DWP and TPR.

Criterion and TeX, the organisations behind STAR are not-for-profit organisations. All participants can be confident that improvements in transfer performance that the STAR framework will bring, are not delivered at undue expense. Organisations who support STAR agree to fund the initiative.

Funding is transparent, sustainable and free from commercial bias. Costs are borne equitably across broad pool of industry participants.

The funding is £6,000 plus VAT one-off joining fee per parent company and £3,000 plus VAT annually per SLA for each brand registration within a Group.

Accreditations are awarded annually, based on the previous year’s data. STAR needs a minimum of nine months of MI per SLA to assess accreditation. This includes the analysis of data and the ratification by the Accreditation Steering Group. 

Full list of participating members and their accreditations can be viewed on our website.

STAR is unable to provide information regarding participants until the MI has been provided, analysed and the STAR Accreditation Steering Group has approved the decision on accreditation.

You should speak to the organisation to determine where they are in the process as it is possible that some organisations could use the statement ‘working towards becoming accredited/certified’ may not be actively pursuing an application.

If you believe any such claims such to be bogus you should report this to enquiries@joinstar.co.uk. 

No, the STAR accreditation scheme is currently a UK based initiative only for any organisation that administers investments, savings and pensions on behalf of UK customers.

We are committed to providing a professional accreditation service and aim to maintain the highest standards in all our dealings with our customers, third parties and stakeholders. However, we recognise that on occasion, it may be necessary for our customers, or those using accredited services to raise a complaint with us.

If you are a third party who has concerns about the activities of STAR, then we want to hear about it.

Full details of how to register a complaint or provide feedback can be found in our Complaints Policy. 

Details of accreditation for all participating organisations can be found on our website.  The STAR website shows the level of accreditation for each brand submitted from a company Group.

Accreditation is valid for a calendar year and all STAR accreditation logos are clearly labelled with the year of accreditation and the product / SLA set.

Accreditations are awarded annually based on the MI submitted. STAR needs a minimum of nine months of MI per SLA to assess accreditation. This includes the analysis of data and the ratification by a sub-committee of the STAR Accreditation group. 

Accreditation is overseen by the Accreditation Steering Group, which consists of STAR members from across the SLA workstreams and observers from industry bodies.

The FCA wants to see that governance is working around accreditation and the remedies if standards are not met.  

Volume information is collected purely for STAR’s internal calculations.  Volume information is not shared with any other STAR participant or STAR governance group.

Last updated 6 January 2022.

© 2024 CT Holdings and Services Limited (CTHS), a joint venture between TISA Exchange Limited and Criterion Tec Limited.

All rights reserved. Company number: 11700872.

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.

Application submitted successfully

Thank you for applying to join the STAR accreditation scheme. We will endeavour to respond as soon as possible using the contact information you’ve provided to us.