Virgin Money appoints Stephen Pearson as General Counsel
Virgin Money, the banking division of the Virgin Group is pleased to announce that Stephen Pearson, 49, has joined the Virgin Money management team as General Counsel.
Stephen has over 20 years legal experience in both business and private practice, most recently as General Counsel, Specialist Services and Litigation at RBS Group with responsibility for the Regulatory, Competition and Intellectual Property legal teams as well as all types of commercial disputes.
At RBS Stephen was a member of the RBS Group Executive, Coutts Bank Audit Committee and in the legal sector he has served on various Commercial Court committees for both Scotland and England.
Stephen reports to Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chief Executive of Virgin Money, who said: “I am delighted that Stephen has agreed to join us. He has extensive legal experience across a wide range of areas including retail and corporate banking, consumer credit and judicial review as well as commercial litigation. He has handled sensitive regulatory issues, advised on board governance and is well respected in the legal sector. I'd like to welcome Stephen to Virgin Money, I am sure he will prove to be an invaluable new addition to the Virgin Money team”.
Commenting on his appointment, Stephen Pearson said: “One result of the financial crisis is that the shape of the UK banking industry is changing. Jayne-Anne's vision and ambition to make “everyone better off” by offering good value to customers, treating employees well, and making a positive contribution to society as well as delivering a fair profit to shareholders really resonated with me. I believe Virgin Money is ideally positioned to grow and help restore much needed trust in UK retail banking. I look forward to playing my part in that ambition”.
Before working for RBS Group Stephen was a Partner at city law firm Travers Smith LLP dealing with corporate recovery, insolvency and banking litigation between 1993 and 2001. Prior to that he spent six years at Linkaters LLP in their Commercial Litigation Department. He is qualified in both Scotland and England.
Annuity transfer delays can cost pensioners £127 a week
Virgin Money backs increased pressure on delays.
Delays in transferring pension savings into retirement income cost pensioners up to £127 a week despite the success of industry initiatives to speed up annuitisation, Virgin Money warns.
And the losses will be even higher if savers miss out on the best rates due to financial volatility – the income on a £100,000 fund* has dropped 7.2% in the past year which is equivalent to £520 a year.
In fact people retiring now are as much as £1,125 a year worse off than they would have been in November 2008 at the height of the financial crisis, Virgin Money analysis shows.
The ongoing campaign, headed by the Association of British Insurers through the Origo Options service, has cut average waiting times to transfer pension funds into an annuity to 11 calendar days from the previous average of 31 days.
That is a massive advance – but with a £100,000 fund yielding income of £6,651 for a 65-year-old man and £6,270 for a 65-year-old woman a delay of just a week could mean they miss out on £127 and £120 respectively.
The worst offenders on annuity transfers can take as long as 51 days – and a 10-week delay could cost £1,270 or £1,200.
A year ago the best rates for a 65-year-old man produced £7,171 while in November 2008 it was £7,776 a year, based on a £100,000 fund. For a woman the figures were £6,712 a year ago and £7,320 in November 2008.
Virgin Money's Grant Bather said: “Buying an annuity is a once-in-a-lifetime decision which pensioners have to literally live with. The income is fixed for life and there are no second chances.
“When people are living longer in retirement the losses from delays really mount up. If you miss out on the best rates then the loss is compounded.
“The ABI's Options programme has been a huge success which has delivered great benefits but the industry as a whole should be doing everything possible to ensure savers get the best deal possible.”
Virgin Money has been shown by research to be among the better providers when it comes to transferring savers' cash into annuities.
It urges all people approaching retirement to shop around to find the best annuity rates across the whole of the market, rather than simply choosing the annuity on offer from their pension provider.
Virgin Money pledges to send out maturity forms to its pension customers within five working days when they request an annuity transfer form and to send a cheque to the annuity provider within a day once the customer returns the forms.
* http://www.sharingpensions.co.uk/annuity_rates.htm#text1
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