HSBC is believed to be on the verge of re-entering the workplace pensions market with the launch of a master trust proposition.
The global bank is understood to be recruiting trustees for a master trust board, to launch a proposition into the fast-growing UK DC sector, six years after exiting it.
HSBC last entered the UK DC sector in 2010, when it came to the market with group personal pension, group stakeholder and S32a buy-out offerings under the brand HSBC Workplace Retirement Services. At that time it also launched an investment-only platform called Fund Platform, which used FNZ technology and which targeted trust-based pension schemes offering straight through processing, open architecture and access to HSBC’s target date Protected Retirement Funds.
Its foray into DC was shortlived however, exiting the market in July 2013.
Recent new stakeholders in the master trust provider space this month include Cardano, which took over Now: Pensions and JP Morgan, which took a stake in Smart Pension. Some experts have predicted more global asset managers, banks and insurers will seek to become providers in the UK DC pensions space as assets grow to challenge the scale of DB assets.
A spokesperson for HSBC said it would not comment on market speculation.