Funds

Standard Life is to abandon its existing platform discounts for large adviser firms in favour of negotiating individual prices with firms based on assets under management, as well as loyalty to the group.

Bestinvest has awarded a three-star rating to competitor Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF after recommending a switch away from iShares' S&P offering.

Standard Life has so far only managed to secure super clean share classes from 11 of the 15 fund groups it originally said it had agreed terms with, Investment Week understands.

Jupiter's Philip Gibbs has been buying up Australian government bonds for his £233m Second Split trust in the view the sell-off in June was overdone.

Cofunds chief executive Chris Last is to retire from the platform just six months after taking over the role.

Bestinvest has suspended its rating of the iShares S&P 500 ETF, after the provider announced today it will only cut the fee on the accumulating share class, and not the distribution version.

Foresight Investment Group has launched a solar fund targeting a 6p dividend on the London Stock Exchange, the latest in a string of renewable energy IPOs with attractive dividends.

IT

Investec Asset Management has set out a marker for other fund groups on super clean after launching low-cost share classes for six of its most popular funds.

iShares has streamlined its European ETF range and significantly reduced fees on a range of funds following the acquisition of Credit Suisse's ETF arm earlier this year.