Financial Conduct Authority
1
Retail Investments
Product Sales Data (PSD) Glossary
Financial Conduct Authority
Advised/non-advised sales An advised sale occurs when an adviser of a regulated rm gives
a personal recommendation to the customer after assessing the
customer’s needs and circumstances. This is specic and individual
advice to the customer and is not generic.
A non-advised sale occurs when no personal recommendation is made
to the customer. The customer may receive generic information on the
product to enable them to make an informed decision about whether
it meets their own needs and circumstances. Non-advised sales include
‘execution only’ and ‘direct offer transactions’.
AVC Additional Voluntary Contributions.
Contributions over and above a member’s normal contributions, if any,
which the member elects to pay to an occupational pension scheme to
secure additional benets.
Pension premiums are reported gross.
Distribution Bond A single premium investment policy. The funds are invested in
equities and gilts and an income is paid each year to the policyholder,
dependent on the performance of the investments.
If over 50% of the fund allocation relates to the distribution fund
then the product is reported as a distribution bond. If less than a 50%
allocation is made, the product is reported as a unit-linked bond.
Endowment Savings Plan An endowment plan with a xed-term, with benets paid on death
within the term or on maturity.
Executive Pension An occupational pension scheme, where each premium paid is
identiable to an individual employee and where an employer has
discretion about whether a pension arrangement is made for a
particular employee and the level of contribution or target benet
under the policy.
Each individual policy is reported as a separate case.
Pension premiums are reported gross.
FSAVC Free-standing Additional Voluntary Contribution
A particular type of registered personal pension scheme set up to take
additional contributions outside an occupational pension scheme.
Rebate-only pension business is not reported.
Group Personal Pension A personal pension scheme, which is available to employees of the
same employer or of employers within a group.
Phased retirement should include transfer plans that permit staggered
annuities to subsequently be purchased.
Deferred transfer plans are excluded.
Each individual policy is reported as a separate case.
1
Product Sales Data (PSD) GlossaryRetail Investments
Financial Conduct Authority
2
Group Money Purchase An occupational pension scheme, which provides money-purchase
benets available to employees of the same employer, or of employers
within a group.
Guaranteed Income/Growth/
Investment Bond
Income and growth bonds, including guaranteed income and
guaranteed equity bonds, which have guarantees and pay a percentage
of the movement of one or more index.
Income drawdown/Income withdrawal An income:
a. As dened in paragraph 7 of Schedule 28 to the Finance Act 2004)
in relation to a member of a pension scheme, amounts (other
than an annuity) which the member is entitled to be paid from the
member’s drawdown pension fund (as dened in paragraph 8 of
that Schedule) in respect of an arrangement; or
b. payments made under interim arrangements in accordance with
section 28A of the Pension Schemes Act 1993;
in respect of an election to make income withdrawals, a reference
to a retail client, an investor or a policyholder includes, after that
person’s death, his surviving spouse, his surviving civil partner or
anyone who is, at that time, his dependant, or both.
This includes transfer plans that allow income from a pension plan
before an annuity is purchased.
Individual Pension Transfer A transaction resulting from a decision made, with or without advice
from a rm, by a customer who is an individual, to transfer deferred
benets from:
a. an occupational pension scheme; or
b. an individual pension contract providing xed or guaranteed
benets that replaced similar benets under a dened benets
pension scheme
to a stakeholder pension scheme or to a personal pension scheme
(including a self-invested personal pension scheme) or to any
deferred annuity policy (including a pension buy-out contract) where
the eventual benets depend in whole or in part on investment
performance in the period up to the intended retirement date.
Investment Trust A company listed in the UK or another EEA State, which has approval
from HM Revenue and Customs (or would have if it was resident
and listed in the UK). Investments are made in shares of the quoted
company and the price of the shares is determined by the demand.
ISA Individual Savings Account.
An account that is a scheme of investment satisfying the conditions
prescribed in the Individual Savings Account Regulations 1998 (SI
1998/1870).
Cash and insurance ISAs are not reported in PSD.
Life/Pension Annuity An arrangement by which a life company pays someone a regular
income, usually for life, in return for a lump sum premium.
This would include:
• deferred and immediate annuities;
• compulsory purchase annuities;
• home income plans; and
• all other types of life annuities.
Long-term Care Insurance Contract A long-term insurance contract, where the benets are designed to
help pay for long-term care needs. These can be pre-funded or for
immediate care.
Product Sales Data (PSD) GlossaryRetail Investments
Financial Conduct Authority
3
Mortgage Endowment Any regular premium low-cost endowments plus unitised
with-prot endowments.
Pension Opt-out A transaction resulting from a decision made, with or without advice
from a rm, by a customer who is an individual, to:
a. opt-out of an occupational pension scheme of which they are a
current member; or
b. decline to become a member of an occupational pension scheme
that they are eligible to join or that they will become eligible to
join at the end of a waiting period
in favour of a stakeholder pension scheme or a personal pension
scheme (including a self-invested personal pension scheme).
Personal Pension A scheme of investment designed for saving for retirement that is
a registered pension scheme, other than an occupational pension
scheme, set up in accordance with HM Revenue and
Customs regulations.
Provider/non-provider A rm is categorised as a provider when it manufactures retail
investment products regardless of whether the same rm sells them
directly to the customer or not. Provider rms could also sell products
that were not originally created by them. All sales made by a provider
rm are considered provider sales.
A rm is categorised as a non-provider rm when it does not
manufacture retail investment products, but it sells products created by
provider rms.
SCARP Structured Capital-At-Risk Product.
A product, other than a derivative, which provides an agreed level of
income or growth over a specied investment period where:
a. the customer is exposed to a range of outcomes in respect of the
return of initial capital invested;
b. the return of initial capital invested at the end of the investment
period is linked by a pre-set formula to the performance of an
index or other factor; and
c. if the performance is within certain thresholds, the capital is fully
repaid. If it is outside these thresholds the customer could lose
some or all of the initial capital invested.
SIPP Self-Invested Personal Pension.
An arrangement that forms all or part of a personal pension scheme,
which gives the member the power to direct how some or all of the
member’s contributions are invested.
SSAS Small Self-Administered Scheme
An occupational pension scheme of a kind described in article 4(4)
and 4(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Carrying on
Regulated Activities by Way of Business) Order 2001 (SI 2001/1177).
Pension premiums are reported gross.
SSAS business is not reported if an administration-only service
is provided.
Each individual policy is reported as a separate case.
Product Sales Data (PSD) GlossaryRetail Investments
Financial Conduct Authority
4
Section 32 Buy-Out/Group Section
32 Buy-Out
A policy or contract bought from an insurance company, using funds
from an approved retirement benets scheme, or from 6 April 2006
funds from a registered pension scheme. It will provide an annuity
to the member at some time in the future. It is therefore always
a deferred annuity contract when purchased. A deferred annuity
contract stands apart from the pension scheme from which it arose.
Stakeholder Pension A registered personal pension scheme that is established in accordance
with Part I of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 and the
Stakeholder Pension Schemes Regulations 2000(S.I. 2000/1403)3.
Trustee Investment Bond A lump sum investment vehicle designed for use by pension
scheme trustees.
Includes SSAS Trustee Investment Bonds and SIPP Trustee
Investment Bonds
Unit-linked Bond A contract where the premium buys, or is deemed to buy investment
units in a selected fund. The value of the policyholder’s fund is linked
to the value of the units (see denition relating to distribution bonds).
Unit Trust Scheme/OEIC An open-ended investment (either a Unit Trust or an Open Ended
Investment Company) authorised by the FCA in which investors
purchase units or shares, the value of which represent their interests in
underlying assets.
With-prot Bond Includes all single premium policies where a lump sum is paid into a
with-prots fund made up of investments such as company shares,
xed interest securities, commercial property and money. Unitised
with-prot bonds are reported under this category.