Unbundled pricing now visible on Fidelity's 'Select List' service suggests asset managers have avoided a squeeze on margins, with just four of 66 active equity funds priced below 75bps.
Fidelity's personal investing platform buy list has an average clean price of 65bps per fund, the group announced last month, broadly in keeping with the rates secured by other D2C platforms.
However, a look at the full range of 66 funds on the list shows just four active equity funds have annual management charges below the typical bundled price of 75bps.
That raises questions over platforms' ability to secure 'super clean' preferential pricing from fund groups.
The four active equity funds at sub-75bps are Royal London UK Mid Cap Growth (0.7%), Baillie Gifford Japanese (0.65%), JOHCM UK Equity Income (0.63%), and Fidelity Moneybuilder Dividend Income (0.5%).
By contrast, nine of the 66 are priced at above 75bps - typically in the more specialised equity space, such as the 1% AMC for the likes of JPM Emerging Markets.
That means the average price is dragged down by 30 active fixed income funds at an average price of 55bps, 19 active mixed asset funds at an average 69bps, 9 passive equity funds at an average 11bps and three passive bond funds at an average 13bps, according to analysts at Numis.
The broker said this "suggests no material change to the margin that they were achieving on flow pre-RDR2 prices for this platform, at a fund specific level."
The likes of Hargreaves Lansdown and Barclays are yet to announce their own clean fund prices, meaning industry-wide conclusions can not yet be drawn, particularly as Hargreaves' core list of favourite funds has a lower average AMC of 54bps.
Three funds mentioned by Hargreaves as examples of the discounts it had secured from fund managers - Artemis Strategic Assets (mixed asset, 66bps), Invesco Perpetual Tactical Bond (fixed income, 45bps) and Marlborough Multi-Cap Income (equity, 65bps) - do not appear on Fidelity's list.
Fidelity said last month it had secured prices of as low as 20bps for active funds - though the lowest on the current list is the 30bps charge the Fidelity Global Inflation Linked Bond fund.
The platform says its buy list will feature "around 140" funds, suggesting more offerings will be added to the current total of 106, possibly with lower AMCs.
Regardless, Numis said, fund managers' initial reaction to pricing on Fidelity's list - one of the country's biggest platforms - will be "one of relief".
