Equiniti Paymaster currently provides overseas local currency payments for over 50,000 pensioners. Since moving to the Eurozone in 2004, the majority of those receiving their UK pensions in Euros have seen the local purchasing power of their pensions fall by 23%.
Changing a pensioner’s payment currency need not be expensive. Equiniti Paymaster suggests that most pension schemes would be able to do so for £3 per transaction.
Andy Brown, Operations Director, Equiniti Paymaster International Payments, says; “Depending on where the pensioner has retired to and the international pension transfer mechanism in use by their schemes, the cost of wire services can add as much as £20 per month in charges. If Scotland were forced to adopt the Euro then schemes should not expect to pay more than £3 per pension payment for the currency conversion, though this could be a lot more if they used a currency converter that charged a premium.”