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About STAR

STAR is the cross-industry initiative, galvanising and driving market participants to define and shape recognised, industry-wide standards to promote good practice in transfers.

The problem

Industry systems and processes are inconsistent and transfer timeframes vary between providers. Service expectations are increasing due to the relative simplicity of switching in other markets and the availability and technological advancements.

Registration processes in the financial services industry can take between 2 and 450 days which the regulator, industry, consumers and government believe is unacceptable.

Leading investment and pension trade associations established the Transfers and Re-registration Industry Group (TRIG) to provide a solution. STAR was created as a partnership between Criterion and TeX to implement and deliver the TRIG framework, which is to define and shape recognised, industry-wide standards to promote good practice in transfers.

What is STAR doing?

STAR has collaborated with the industry to:

Benefits for participants

  • Highlights commitment to timely deliver transfers and re-registrations and a public demonstration of aiming for better outcomes for consumers;
  • Influence how best practice is defined across transfers and re-registrations;
  • Highlighting good performance;
  • Assists in eliminating levels of additional administration and associated costs;
  • Access to industry thinking and defined SLA / MI;
  • Supports FCA / Government thinking.

Consumers

  • Improved transfer times;
  • Better communication;
  • Improved transparency;
  • Continuous improvement.

Accreditation

STAR will award Bronze, Silver and Gold, and accreditations based on performance against the transfer standards set on an annual basis.

This accreditation scheme is designed to encourage improvement with tiered Bronze, Silver and Gold awards based on performance.

To find out which providers have been awarded accreditations for their transfer services, please visit STAR members.

isa gia gold
isa gia silver
isa gia bronze

TRIG

The Transfers and Re-registration Industry Group (TRIG) was a collaboration of 10 industry trade bodies and representatives of individual firms, who had previously worked to deliver a cross-industry framework to the challenge of improving customer experiences of moving money from one financial institution to another.

  • The Association of British Insurers
  • The Association of Member Directed Pension Schemes
  • The Investment Association
  • The Pensions Administration Standards Association
  • The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association
  • The Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association
  • The Society of Pension Professionals
  • TISA
  • UK Finance
  • The UK Platform Group

TRIG endorsed and recommended the Criterion and TeX joint venture, named STAR, to manage good practice framework.

STAR is endorsed and recommended by these TRIG organisations:

Source: The Transfer and Re-registration Industry Group (TRIG) – Industry-wide framework for improving transfers and re-registrations, June 2018 Progress Update.

SERVICING AGREEMENT

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1. APPLICANT COVERED BY THIS REGISTRATION.
Please note this registration will not be processed if Step 1 has not been completed.
If your organisation is acting only as an affiliate, you do not need to complete Step 2.
2a. CHOOSE YOUR BRAND
STAR manages the administration of third-party access to the portal, rather than the member firm. This allows for a smoother transition for the member firm and allowing immediate access to the supplier to submit MI on their behalf. STAR will hold an approved list of users per supplier, which will be allocated to your account at the point of registration. This ensures each ‘external’ user has the same access across all their client accounts. Supplier access is restricted and they do not have any ability to see any company information for any client other than what they submit on your behalf. You as the member control access for any other users within your organisation. We will include a more detailed description about the user access on your welcome email and it is clearly defined as part of the User Guide.
STAR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER FOR FIRST BRAND
This person will be the main contact for all notices and other formal communications under this agreement and will be responsible for the administration of the members portal access (including without limitation the providing, updating and removing of authorised User access to the portal during the Term).
2b.
STAR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER FOR THE SECOND BRAND
This person will be the main contact for all notices and other formal communications under this agreement and will be responsible for the administration of the members portal access (including without limitation the providing, updating and removing of authorised User access to the portal during the Term).
2c.
STAR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER FOR THE THIRD BRAND
This person will be the main contact for all notices and other formal communications under this agreement and will be responsible for the administration of the members portal access (including without limitation the providing, updating and removing of authorised User access to the portal during the Term).
2d.
STAR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER FOR THE FOURTH BRAND
This person will be the main contact for all notices and other formal communications under this agreement and will be responsible for the administration of the members portal access (including without limitation the providing, updating and removing of authorised User access to the portal during the Term).
3. INVOICE INFORMATION
Invoices are sent by email as standard, if a printed invoice is required please note the address and your requirements in the additional information section.
4. DECLARATION
Before we can process your Brand Registration a STAR Servicing Agreement needs to be signed. Your signatory must be duly authorised for and on behalf of the organisation named in this application.
We only require one signed STAR Servicing Agreement which will cover all brands that you wish to register. Upon completion of this form we will check our records to ensure an agreement hasn't already been signed, if so a new contract will not be sent to your signatory.
STAR will email the servicing contract to the signatory email address (provided below) through our electronic platform Yoti. This declaration must be signed in order for your application to complete, once we receive the signed agreement we will instruct our finance department to issue your invoice.

Application submitted successfully

Thank you for applying to join the STAR accreditation scheme. We will endeavour to respond as soon as possible using the contact information you’ve provided to us.