The small self-invested personal pension provider, DAC Pensions, has gone into liquidation and is now classed as in default by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
On 24 August 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as the industry’s regulator, issued a Supervisory Notice in which it confirmed that DAC Pensions failed to carry out adequate due diligence in respect of two unregulated introducer firms which were based in Ireland and Cyprus.
These firms did not have the relevant authority to provide pension advice in the UK and held only European Economic Area (EEA) cover.
It is reported that their failings led to DAC Pensions wrongly accepting over 600 new clients with assets of over £20million and allowing them to invest in high risk portfolios which included unregulated collective investment schemes, sometimes known as pooled investments, which the FCA has long since said are not suitable for average consumers: Unregulated collective investment schemes | FCA.
