The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) proposed reforms to non-advised pension transfers have been branded as "anti-consumer and anti-competitive” by AJ Bell, which warned they risk undermining years of progress on improving transfer times.

Responding to the FCA’s consultation on adapting its requirements for a changing pensions market, which closed on 12 February 2026, AJ Bell chief executive officer, Michael Summersgill, criticised plans that would require firms receiving pension transfer requests to gather information from a customer’s existing scheme and present a comparison before initiating the transfer, unless the customer opts out.

“These proposals are anti-consumer, anti-competitive and represent the worst kind of regulatory intervention," he argued.

"Without presenting any clear justification whatsoever, the FCA has set out plans to shut down consumer choice and put barriers in the way of people who do the right thing and engage with their retirement finances.

"This is all the more baffling given the regulator has spent years rightly focused on improving pension transfer times - including identifying slow transfers as a key harm it wanted to address as recently as 2023.”

Under the proposals, unless a consumer opts out of receiving a comparison, the new provider would need consent to request information from the existing scheme.

The ceding scheme would then have 10 days to provide the relevant details, and the receiving firm would be required to present the comparison within three days of receiving the information.

However, AJ Bell warned that the reforms could add significant delays to transfers between FCA-regulated pension schemes.

It also noted that the measures would not apply to workplace pension schemes, including master trusts and other occupational schemes that fall outside the FCA’s remit.

“To make matters worse, these proposals will only apply to pensions regulated by the FCA, meaning the proposed 10-day time limit for firms to provide the information needed to process a transfer will not apply to workplace pension schemes that don’t come under the FCA’s remit," continued Summersgill.

"Ironically, this is where some of the worst offenders when it comes to slow pension transfer times reside.”

He added that the intervention had been proposed “without any clear justification” and risked reversing improvements made in recent years to address slow transfers, which the FCA previously highlighted as a key consumer harm in its platforms supervision strategy.

“This is a classic case of a solution looking for a problem that simply does not exist," he stated.

Furthermore, Summersgill contrasted the proposals with what he described as a more collaborative, evidence-based approach taken by the regulator to targeted support reforms, urging the FCA to reconsider.

“The FCA needs to go back to the drawing board here and engage with firms on solutions that do not risk causing substantial consumer harm through delayed transfers.

"Annual benefit statements are the natural solution, with the anticipated launch of the pensions dashboard providing an obvious platform to allow people to compare information on their different pensions,” he concluded.

The FCA has said it is seeking to support non-advised consumers considering pension transfers or consolidation by ensuring they have sufficient information to make informed decisions, amid concerns some savers may unknowingly give up valuable guarantees, such as protected pension ages or loyalty bonuses, or move to schemes with fewer decumulation options or higher charges.

However, AJ Bell argued that very few modern defined contribution pensions contained the types of guarantees cited by the regulator and called for closer collaboration between the FCA, the Department for Work and Pensions and The Pensions Regulator to explore alternative approaches, including strengthening disclosures through annual benefit statements and, in time, the pensions dashboard.

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