The IMA today expressed disappointment at
reports that the FSA is about to propose a more complex
pricing regime for unit trusts and open-ended investment
companies (OEICs) than exists now.
Since 1995 the regulator has been
committed to the introduction of mandatory single pricing
for unit trusts, with the aim of simplifying matters for
investors and reflecting the regime already in existence
for OEICs, CAT marked funds and stakeholder pensions.
This approach was confirmed by the FSA in August
2000 with the publication of the new Collective Investment
Schemes Sourcebook. If
reports are correct, that position has now been reversed.
The industry has, after some initial
debate, accepted that single pricing would become
mandatory and,
in a paper submitted to the FSA in early 2001, AUTIF (IMA’s
predecessor body) set out an agreed industry position on
the matter. This
was based on the premise that it was in investors’, and
the industry’s, interests
to keep things as simple as possible and not to have a
proliferation of different ways of pricing funds.
The IMA will now consider the implications
of the FSA’s change of policy and will respond in due
course to the Consultation Paper.
Clare Arber, Head of Communications, said:
“We
fully support the recommendations for greater transparency
of the pricing method used.
But the proposals – as we understand them –
will make fund pricing more confusing for the consumer
than it is now, and certainly much more so than under the
compulsory single pricing regime we had expected and
accepted. We
do not believe the answer is to introduce yet more
complexity.”
