RSMR's Rayner: Our main aim for 2016 is to advance our DFM research

Ratings agency on expansion plans

Ken Rayner, one of the founding partners of Rayner Spencer Mills Research (RSMR), talks about ratings expansion plans, competition in the market and that Fundscape/gbi2 Gatekeepers Report.

Ratings agencies have come under heavy fire recently, with allegations of bias towards larger, more established fund providers, but Ken Rayner has defended these so-called 'gatekeepers' of the UK funds industry. He tells Investment Week his firm's ratings process deliberately looks to avoid such distortions, and instead focuses on the quality of a fund, rather than the size of its parent. However, he cautions that sometimes it is worth waiting for a fund to gather more assets before assessing its performance. "We have always taken a view that when the fund is good enough, it is goo...