Well known names such as Amundi, Fidelity International, JPMorgan, Henderson and Schroders have featured on a list of asset managers that have potentially charged high fees for funds mimicking their respective indices.
The list was put out by Better Finance, an investor campaign group.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) would not disclose the names of the funds it identified as “potential equity closet indexing funds” in its investigation last year, leaving fund investors in the dark.
Better Finance replicated Esma’s methodology when the European regulator found that up to a sixth of actively managed equity funds sold on the continent potentially overcharged investors.
Better Finance alleges that some of the largest asset managers in the world – including Fidelity International, JPMorgan, Amundi, Schroders and Henderson – each oversee billions of euros in funds that could be classed as closet trackers.
Better Finance used the same source of data as Esma, the Morningstar fund database, and found 165 potential “index hugger” funds.
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