For anyone who pays a retirement income
Corduroy is a decumulation app that pension providers put their name on: for every member after the income starts, with an account where a lump sum lands. She keeps her bank. You keep the relationship.
Retiring yourself? We work through pension providers, so yours is the one to ask.
Good morning, Joan.
Your lump sum
£22,546.35
+£46.35 interest in October
Only ever paid to your bank ••41
Your lump sum: three things to decide →
Sarah, your daughter
She can help if you ever need her →
About £12.40 back next month. See all →
Illustrative
The problem
The way up is the easy part. Getting down is where people come unstuck.
On the ski-liftTrust, built over forty-five years.
Off the ski-liftNo channel, no meaningful contact, no moment to help.
£22bn
of PCLS left pensions last year. Nearly three times the usual.
35.2%
of annuities bought from the customer’s own provider. Down every year since 2021/22.
150,000+
members expected to move to buy-out in 2026. Around three times 2024.
46%
of plans taking regular withdrawals draw 8% or more a year.
Paying her isn’t the same as knowing her, or helping her. Mostly, you hear from her when something has already gone wrong.
AJ Bell analysis of FCA data (Sep 2026) · LCP, pension risk transfer predictions for 2026 (Jan 2026) · FCA Retirement income market data 2025/26: Tables 7 and 15 · plans, not people
The account and the app
Alongside her bank, not instead of it. Her card and her direct debits stay where they are.
The account · when her lump sum lands
Her lump sum has to land somewhere. Why not where you can still help?
It lands here first and earns interest while she decides. It can only move on to her own bank, so no one can have it sent straight to them: not a scammer, not family pressing her. And it’s always hers to move. We don’t hold it back. We put better support around it. She earns more and is better off by doing nothing.
The app · every member, every payday
Already in payment? Nothing moves.
Her pension still goes to her own bank. She tells you her needs, updates them as they change, and names someone she trusts. When she dies, her family is guided through it.
Why she opens it every month
Money she may be owed
A check for Pension Credit and other benefits she hasn’t claimed.
Less going out
Bills she’s overpaying, and rewards where she already shops.
Help that keeps up
She tells you her needs, updates them as they change, and names someone she trusts.
The first two need a read-only link to the bank she already has, if she chooses. No switching.
For you: a reason for her to come back every month, where today you have a reference and an amount.
Your brand on the front. We work behind it.
You
Your products, and the relationship.
Corduroy
The account and the app, behind your brand.
The bank
The licence and her deposits, protected by the FSCS up to the scheme limit.
If she’d rather not use the app, your phone and paper service carries on as it does today.
Help before she has to ask.
Your book
Line of book
After the payment
Retail annuity
Won and lost on rate, when rate is the only difference.
Most big pots buy elsewhere. If she saved with you, you still pay her lump sum.
Bulk annuity
Scheme members on Friday.
Yours on Monday. L&G says member experience was “a decisive factor” in the Wood Pension Plan trustee’s choice of insurer.
Closed books
Closed to new business.
Not closed to the Duty. Years of customers, little contact.
Drawdown
She sets her own income.
After the payment, all you have is a reference and an amount.
You sign off good outcomes. The evidence stops at the payment.
FCA PS22/9 (Consumer Duty); closed books in scope from July 2024 · FCA PRIN 2A.9 (monitoring outcomes) · FCA Retirement income market data 2025/26: Tables 7 and 15 · plans, not people · LCP, pension risk transfer predictions for 2026 (Jan 2026) · L&G, Wood Pension Plan buy-in (Sep 2026)
Who we are
We aren’t regulated. Our clients are. We’ve spent our careers building and changing firms like yours, and we build Corduroy to the standards you work to.
We’re looking for our first design partners now, to shape version one with us. Our platform will be ready from Q2 2027. From then, you go live as soon as you’re ready.
SD
Steve Donelan
CEO
29 years in fintech and transforming regulated businesses: 13 at Alfa, then GE Capital, Director at Deloitte and Equity Partner at EY.
WM
Will McKnight
CIO
18 years in IT and security; ran PCI DSS and Compliance security at flexible-pay fintech Hi.
JJ
Jack Jones
Head of Ops
14 years running consumer and healthcare operations at scale, including ALDI and Bupa.
JH
Joshua Hessey
Principal Software Engineer
Built our platform since 2024; four years before at fintech Hi.
AB
Andrew Baxter
Senior Software Engineer
15 years building sensitive-data systems: NHS health records, GDPR at Sainsbury’s.
AP
Archie Pritchett
Ops Associate
Runs our research with retirees, plus banking and vendor operations. Published in Professional Pensions and Pensions Expert.
RS
Robin Saunders
Chair
Managing Partner, Clearbrook Capital; ex-Chase, Deutsche Bank.
JW
James Watt
Lead investor
Successful serial entrepreneur, backing us for the long term.
RM
Rory Murphy
NED
Chaired the MNOPF trustee board for twelve years.
JT
Jerry Toher
NED
Formerly CEO of Saga Money and CEO Consumer at Royal London.
KP
Kaine Price
NED, Compliance
CEO, Complymatic; FCA-regulated director.
NM
Neil Moles
Advisor
Former CEO, Progeny.
In thirty minutes, I’ll take you through the problems we’re solving and how we solve them. Then we can talk about where it could add value across your business.
Steve Donelan, CEO
Corduroy is what skiers call a freshly prepared slope. You don’t see the work. You feel the smoother run.