Specialist pension provider Selectapension is to resume pension transfer business in 2018 after suspending DB pension transfers earlier this year following an FCA audit.

The company said this week that it would aim to resume new pension transfer business next year and will begin to look at pipeline business next month.

In a statement, the company said: “Our partner CFPML has made good progress to meet the FCA’s requirements, following their visit in June, and are well on track to complete this work by the end of October. They should therefore be in a position to process those cases which await recommendations from early November.”

“All advisers who have introduced cases have been contacted to establish whether they wish to continue with CFPML or to withdraw these, with no charge, and proceed with a new advice firm. We will prioritise the existing pipeline cases and are therefore unlikely to accept any new cases until the beginning of 2018.”

With the new pension freedoms in place, pension transfer business in the UK has boomed this year with an estimated 80,000 transfers going through the process and a predicted 100,000 cases next year.

Selectapension is a significant player in the DB transfer analysis market. Advice firms using the firm's DB TVAS system processed 74,000 cases in the 12 months to August 2017, according to company figures.

The company apologised to advisers earlier this year after it suspended DB pension transfer business following an FCA audit.

At the time, the company said that following an FCA review of its outsource partner CFPML it made some changes to its transfer process following advice from the FCA. Full permissions remained in place while CFPML worked with the regulator on its review.

Selectapension suspended its Selectapension Bureau Service, which handles DB transfers for advisers, so the partner firm could deal with the outstanding backlog and to allow CFPML to update its processes.

The FCA has been undertaking greater scrutiny of the pension transfer market this year after a review found some advice may not have been suitable.

• Editor's Note: Story amended 3.30 pm, 10.10.17 to update latest figures on the number of DB TVAS cases.