On 28 November 2016, we blogged that the FCA published Consultation Paper 16/36: Regulatory reporting: retirement income data (CP16/36). In CP16/36 the FCA sets out proposals to introduce two regulatory returns into chapter 16 of the Supervision manual to collect data about the retirement income market from providers of retirement income products.
The FCA has now published Policy Statement 17/16: Regulatory reporting: Retirement income data: Feedback on CP16/36 and final rules (PS17/16). PS17/16 sets out the FCA’s response to the feedback received to CP16/36 and sets out final rules introducing two new data items on retirement income.
The FCA received 18 responses to its consultation which were broadly supportive of its proposals. However, the FCA has made a number of changes to its final rules. These include:
- improvements to the guidance notes to aid firms completing the new data items;
- extending the scope of applications to include incoming firms;
- requiring firms to submit the data via Gabriel;
- increasing the submission period granted to firms from 30 business days to 45 business days.
In particular, the changes the FCA has made to the proposed guidance on REP015 to include:
- making it clearer that annuity sales are to be reported by the annuity provider and not the provider of the pension used to purchase the annuity;
- specifying that “clustered” arrangements, where a number of arrangements are set up for one individual within a scheme, should be reported as one plan;
- clarifying that plans should be reported regardless of whether they are held by the original policyholder or a beneficiary; and
- altering the guidance on age bands to give firms flexibility to report consumers’ ages as at the point of product purchase or as at the end of the reporting period, depending on what is easiest to extract from their systems.
The FCA has also made a change to the guidance on REP016, which is to provide a clearer description of which plans should be reported in the questions on regular withdrawals.
The rules and guidance will come into effect on 30 September 2018.
View FCA policy statement on regulatory reporting of retirement income data, 21 July 2017
