Published articles 2011
2012 vision: It's not all doom and gloom
2012 will be a year of real challenges for the investment management industry. Even setting aside the travails of the Eurozone – which could end up overshadowing everything - there are currently over 30 pieces of EU regulation potentially affecting us. All will require careful scrutiny to ensure they are positive for investors and do not have unintended or harmful effects. And it remains to be seen what will be the impact of the Brussels summit on the UK’s negotiating capital in Europe.
Richard Saunders, Chief Executive
December 2011
A regulatory tidal wave
It feels like we have been living in the aftermath of the “credit crisis” forever. The amount of legislation which has been coming out and is met with “here we go again, more fallout from the credit crisis” knows no bounds it seems.
Mona Patel, Head of Communications
December 2011
UK does more to protect Investors in OEICs
In September the Treasury confirmed its plan to ring-fence OEIC sub-funds within umbrella structures by introducing a Protected Cell Regime (PCR). This will bring increased business to the UK by enhancing the competitiveness of the UK funds industry and give OEIC investors even greater levels of protection. The Treasury laid the necessary legislation at the end of November.
Karen Bowie, Senior Adviser, Product Regulation
December 2011
De-bunking the myths of short-termism
Much has been written about investment managers churning stocks to the detriment of client returns, investee companies and potentially the overall stability of the economy. Short-termism is a phrase that is used by many, without necessarily clearly defining what it means. It also remains firmly on policy-makers’ agendas, with the European Commission referring to “inappropriate short-termism among investors” in its Green Paper on Corporate Governance earlier this year.
Liz Murrall, Director of Corporate Governance and Reporting
Jonathan Lipkin, Head of Research and Pensions
December 2011
Investor confidence and the future for auto-enrolment
It’s likely that our next Investor Perspectives Survey, coming shortly, will show a drop in investor confidence. Conducted in the latter half of September, when markets were yo-yoing around.......
Mona Patel, Head of Communications
October 2011
Action needed for legacy business
One of the inevitable outcomes of RDR is that overnight all advised business, written before 31 December 2012, will become legacy business. Many industry practitioners are becoming increasingly concerned over the lack of clarity coming from the FSA on this issue. As I see it there are three things that need to be addressed, what exactly will constitute legacy business? Who will be responsible for distinguishing what is and what isn’t legacy? And how the FSA will incentivise advisers to reassess client portfolios after December 2012.
Andy Maysey, Senior Adviser, Retail Distribution
October 2011
Your guide to KIIDs
By July next year it will be easier for investors to compare funds as all UK authorised UCITS funds must produce a Key Investor Information Document (KIID). This two page document is intended to provide a consistent comparative tool for investors in the early stages of selecting a fund and must be supplied to an investor before they invest. Any initiative like this which helps to better inform investors must be a good thing.
Andy Maysey, Senior Adviser, Retail Distribution
September 2011
String theory
At the time of writing the Lib Dem conference has just come to a close. As expected, in the conference hall, there was plenty of tub thumping to rally the party faithful after 500 days of "being in power".
Mona Patel, Head of Communications
September 2011
Landscape views
A couple of weeks ago, Money Marketing reported on some of the findings of the Investment Management Association’s annual asset management survey. A weighty tome of over 100 pages was neatly condensed into just over 300 words.
Mona Patel, Head of Communications
August 2011
IMA View: Savers deserve the facts
The Simplified Prospectus (SP) will soon be a thing of the past and no one will grieve its loss. The document was not simple at all and failed to meet the objective of giving consumers easy to read information about funds. The new and improved Key Investor Information Document (KIID), the replacement for the SP, will be introduced from 1 July 2011. The KIID aims to provide essential information in a prescribed way and a comprehensible format.
Andy Maysey, Senior Adviser, Retail Distribution
July 2011
What’s in a name?
It’s often said that only two things in life are certain – death and taxes. For my part I’d like to add a third – there will always be controversy over sector names.
Mona Patel, Head of Communications
June 2011
UK investors –the best advised in Europe?
This month both IMA and EFAMA, our European trade body, published figures for flows into funds in the first quarter of 2011.
Richard Saunders, Chief Executive
June 2011
Sector watch: IMA China/Greater China
Industry players joke that you that there is an asset bubble when the IMA launches a new sector. So when we announced the creation of the China/Greater China sector, some said Chinese equity markets had peaked and investors should get out.
Jane Lowe, Director of Markets
June 2011
What’s an ETF?
The amount of discussion of exchange-traded funds has been growing apace over the last few months. But most of us have only the haziest idea what ETFs are. And to make matters worse they come in a number of shapes and sizes.
Richard Saunders, Chief Executive
June 2011
A guarantee is very well, but at what cost?
Investing in the stock market can be pretty scary…..
Richard Saunders, Chief Executive
May 2011
Clear labels are essential
There has been a flurry of comments about the risks of “ETFs” (exchange-traded funds).
Julie Patterson, Director Authorised Funds & Tax
May 2011
Intelligent intervention
Last week, the IMA gave the FSA the benefit of its wisdom in response to a discussion paper on product intervention.
Mona Patel, Head of Commuications
May 2011
Victory for common sense
So the Treasury has announced that it will not be pursuing the idea of offering people early access to their pension savings. I think this is the right answer. We said so in our response to the consultation and the reasons given by the government were precisely those put forward by the IMA. There is little if any evidence to show that early access would increase levels of pension savings or help those facing financial difficulty. In fact, the opposite is true. There is a danger that, rather than increasing participation and contribution levels, early access could lead to greater complexity and individuals potentially ending up worse off in retirement.
Richard Saunders, Chief Executive
May 2011
It is impossible to invest without incurring cost
Does the fund management industry overcharge?
Richard Saunders, Chief Executive
May 2011
Get the ISAs flowing
As I write this, ISA providers are gearing up for what they hope will be a last minute rush by consumers to invest their ISA allowance for this tax year.
Mona Patel, Head of Communications
April 2011
Making incentives clearer
As the new tax year kicks off we'll see a change in advertising tack from urging us to "use or lose the ISA allowance before it's too late" to one that encourages us to make the most of the new tax year's higher allowance and start investing now. A recent IMA survey asked 595 equity ISA investors whether they plan to increase or decrease investments in the 2011/12 tax year. The survey found that a third of all equity ISA investors plan to increase their investments, while 29% plan to use up this tax year’s full ISA allowance of £10,680. Only one in ten expect to decrease their investments in the current tax year.
Richard Saunders, Chief Executive
April 2011
Our culture of not saving
The Budget brought welcome news for saving in the form of confirmation that the new Junior ISA will be available from the autumn.
Julie Patterson, Director Authorised Funds & Tax
March 2011
Compensation scheme needs new calculator
The front cover is beguiling. A happy, smiling couple in late middle age skip hand-in-hand along the shoreline, secure in the 7½% income which is enabling them to enjoy a carefree retirement.
Richard Saunders, Chief Executive
March 2011
Absolute Return Funds – what future?
Time and time again I find myself returning to the thorny topic of IMA sectors.....
Mona Patel, Head of Communications
February 2011
Auto-enrolment the start of a new approach
The recent creation of the Cabinet Office Behavioural Insight Team is an interesting illustration of how far behavioural economics is entering the public policy mainstream
Jonathan Lipkin, Head of Research
January 2011