BREAKING: 130 financial advice firms stopped providing DB pension transfer advice in 2020, following action by the Financial Conduct Authority, the regulator said in an update this morning.

BREAKING: 60% of firms that gave DB transfer advice between October 2018 and March 2020 (785 firms) used the contingent charging - a fee model now banned due to mis-selling risk.

The FCA says currently investigating 30 firms and individuals where the principal focus is DB pension transfer advice.

Nearly 40,000 consumers were advised to transfer a DB pension on a contingent charging basis between October 2018 and March 2020, according to an FCA updated today.

Contingent charging (where advisers only get paid if a transfer proceeds) was banned by the FCA in October 2020.

Today the FCA also provided an updatethe mass pension mis-selling scandal, involving members of the British Steel Pension Scheme.

This dates back to 2017/18 when thosands of BSPS members were wrongly advised to give up their DB pensions and transfer to riskier plans.

Of the 1,310 firms providing DB advice and currently active in the market, 254 firms (19%) provided 3,427 clients with a personal recommendation to transfer from the BSPS in 2017-2018, the FCA said in an update today.

The FCA said "we aim to follow-up with every firm that was materially involved in providing BSPS advice".

"As we have done to date, where we find that their advice may have been unsuitable, we will tell them to take appropriate corrective action."