Not-for-profit fintech Origo looks to raise profile by joining SFE

A not-for-profit fintech business owned by major financial service firms including Scottish Widows and Aegon has joined industry body Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE).

Graeme Jones holds the chief executive role at SFE

The move by Edinburgh’s Origo, which employs 70 staff working on ways to improve efficiencies and customer experience across the industry, comes as it looks to raise its profile in the sector where major projects it has been involved in include the UK Government’s Pensions Dashboard.

Managing director Anthony Rafferty said joining SFE, which is led by chief executive Graeme Jones, would help the firm develop further connections in the industry and support work under way to strengthen the industry as a whole.

Mr Rafferty said: “Origo has a long history of delivering financial technology for the benefit of the UK financial services industry and its customers.

“We are delighted to have joined SFE at a time when we are developing an even higher profile within the industry for creating solutions that deliver significant improvements to systems and services.”

Origo’s work includes developing technology that has helped reduce the time taken to transfer pensions. Its Options Transfers service, which has its tenth anniversary later this year, has transferred in excess of £150 billion worth of pensions and ISAs.

The company has also been involved in technological developments for the Pensions Dashboard, which aims to help individuals gain access to information about all their pensions in one place.

The dashboard had been scheduled for launch in 2019 but there has been speculation recently that the UK Government may be considering axing the project as feasibility work on it nears completion.