Industry fintech integration body Origo has spun off its standards and governance arm Criterion as an independent organisation.

Non-profit Criterion moves from being a subsidiary of Origo to become fully independent.

Edinburgh-based Criterion was established in June 2017 to provide standards and governance services to financial providers.

The standards enable product providers, platforms, administrators, portals and advisers to work with each other.

The separation has meant the transfer of staff from Origo and the creation of a new website https://www.criterion.org.uk/  including the rebranded Criterion Standards and professional Governance services.

Criterion continues to have its own managing director, independent chair, board and corporate governance and will continue its work on standards and governance while Origo will focus on operational services such as Origo Transfer Service, Unipass Identity and Integration Hub services. 

Since 2019, Criterion has also pushed forward STAR, the regulator-backed industry initiative to develop standards and best practice to help speed up the transfer times for pensions and investments. This is being driven forward in a joint venture with TeX, with over 65 companies now part of the venture.

Billy Burnside, managing director of Criterion, says: “In response to industry demand, in 2017 the Origo board decided that in order to position clearly the services provided by Origo and its provision of standards to the industry, a separate company should be created. This would be, in the first instance, a subsidiary of Origo and Criterion was created; into which custody of the standards business was placed. 

"Full independence was always the intention and as part of that transition Criterion has established a strong and increasingly independent position as part of the financial services industry eco-system. We now have the final piece of the jigsaw in place, creating a fully independent body that can draw on a long history of delivering standards and governance – since 1989."