A pensions business is immediately halting advice on DB pensions transfers, following discussions with the regulator.

Intelligent Pensions said it had volunteered to suspend this service on a temporary basis.

The FCA’s register stated the company had to “immediately cease to provide advice in relation to the transfer, or conversion, of safeguarded benefits under a pension scheme to flexible benefits”.

Win a gift voucher by helping with our Financial Planning researchhttps://t.co/yxWIHMRbjG via @FPTodayNews pic.twitter.com/Al2lbhMS7F

— FP Today Magazine (@FPTodayMagazine) June 5, 2017

An Intelligent Pensions statement read: "Following discussions with the FCA we have voluntarily agreed to temporarily suspend offering advice and arranging DB transfers.

“We are working with legal and compliance experts and remain confident that our recommendations and advice process deliver good outcomes for our clients and that we will be able to demonstrate this to the FCA quickly.”

A fortnight ago The Pensions Regulator said around 80,000 transfers out of DB pension schemes were made in the last year.

It stated: “For the period of 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 defined benefit pension schemes have, in total, reported 67,700 transfers out of the scheme.

“However, not all of these schemes have reported how many transfers they carried out. Our estimate is that there were around 80,000 transfers made. We do not hold this information for previous year.”

This came about a month after an actuarial firm revealed the number of DB transfers completed in the first three months of 2017 increased 166%. The rise, which was based on comparisons with the same three-month period of 2016, was reported by Xafinity Group.