She may be unhappy about Brexit and apoplectic about active fund managers, but Gina Miller has praised the UK financial regulator over its recent market review of asset management.
“Credit where credit’s due. This FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] paper is a comprehensive and well-founded analysis exposing the various dishonesties that have been plaguing the UK investment and pension industry for decades,” said Miller in a statement.
Miller is co-founder of the True and Fair Campaign – a quasi pressure group that rails against ‘index-hugging’ fund firms – but Miller is more famous now for winning court backing to make the UK government get Parliamentary approval before triggering Article 50 for the EU exit.
“The FCA has rightly exposed lack of price competition in active funds, the failure to pass on economies of scale, hidden transaction costs, £109 billion (€127 billion) of closet index funds, near useless broker ‘buy lists’…” – and the list goes on.
Or rather, the FCA’s list goes on.
The regulator recently published the interim findings of its asset management market study, which consisted of a list of criticisms of the UK asset management industry.
Miller, who is also co-founder of SCM Direct – a wealth manager that invests clients’ money in passive exchange-traded funds – didn’t make reference to the FCA’s observations on passive funds, though the regulator was only mildly critical of the sector, saying it had found “some examples of poor value for money in this segment”.
Miller described the FCA report as a “game changer” and “cultural revolution” for both the regulator and the sector.
©2016 funds europe
