For immediate release: Monday 19 September 2005

�AN HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY FOR THE FUND MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY�
IMA�s Chief Executive addresses FSA Asset Management Conference

Speaking at the FSA�s Asset Management Conference this morning, Richard Saunders, Chief Executive of the IMA hailed the �A day� tax reforms to pensions from April 2006 as �an historic opportunity for the fund management industry�:

�We are entering a new era where there can be greater competition, new products and real benefits for consumers.�

He said that IMA would shortly be presenting the Turner Commission with a detailed paper in response to its request for ideas on how to deliver low cost individual retirement accounts within the state system.  Mr Saunders said that IMA�s proposal for a public private partnership would provide:

�� something that could deliver the benefits of individual investment at significantly lower cost.�

Turning to the savings system more generally Mr. Saunders said a key ingredient of getting people to save more was to combine straightforward products with simple incentives.  This meant tackling complexity in the tax system:

�IMA [has] put forward its own suggestion for tax reform. In a paper last autumn (Investing in Savers) we put forward the idea of replacing the multitude of different regimes with just one � a single flat tax for savings.�

The IMA is developing these ideas in more detail and will be producing a further paper.

Finally, Mr Saunders drew attention to the growth of Dublin and Luxembourg as fund centres in comparison to London, largely because of the operation of UK tax rules.  He estimated that if UK tax rules had not led institutional money market funds and exchange-traded funds to domicile offshore, then the UK funds industry would be 50% bigger than it is today.

He sounded a warning that the current antiquated approach to taxing trading and investment was unable to cope with modern asset management techniques.  Reform of these rules would be:

��the single biggest contribution the Treasury could make to fostering the UK as a global asset management centre.�

Full text of Richard Saunders� speech attached.

A copy of Investing in Savers is also attached.

-Ends-

For further information, please contact:
Helen Stephenson, Communications Officer, IMA, 020 7831 0898

Out of hours contact:
Mona Patel, Head of Communications, IMA, 07834 089332