Flexible drawdown pension transfers increased by £114m in Q2 2017 to £954m, despite continued political and market uncertainty, Equifax Touchstone has found.

According to data from Equifax Touchstone, which covered over 90 per cent of the UK’s life and pension companies, flexible drawdown transfers grew by 13.6 per cent, while transfers across all products rose by 5.9 per cent to £6.1bn in Q2. The increase reflects the continued trend among investors to seek pension products that better suit their retirement needs, the firm noted.

In the second quarter, total pension investments including transfers were at £12.5bn, a slight increase of 0.6 per cent on the previous quarter.

Overall, the data has indicated that sales for the year are set to exceed 2016, with inflows for the quarter up by £4.1bn, 47.8 per cent year on year. Nonetheless, new pension investments fell by 4.1 per cent, £272.2m.

Equifax Touchstone director John Driscoll said: “The Q2 2017 data has remained extremely positive overall, building from an exceptionally strong Q1 performance with significant rises in drawdown transfers. Encouragingly pension inflows have grown once again despite ongoing political and market uncertainty, showing resilience within the UK pension sector.

“Looking ahead to the third quarter of the year, we expect high volumes of pension transfers to continue, particularly from defined benefit schemes to drawdown products, where a number of providers have seen record interest. Defined benefit schemes are currently offering members improved transfer values in an attempt to shift increasing liabilities; this is proving to be highly attractive to individuals seeking evermore autonomy over their financial affairs.”

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