Warning FCA platform study could 'drive up prices' for end investors

Reaction to FCA Investment Platforms Market Study

Forcing asset managers to offer the same price to all platforms could drive up costs to consumers, Fundscape CEO Bella Caridade-Ferreira has warned.

Although  Caridade-Ferreira welcomed the regulator looking into the platforms market, she warned an unintended consequence of the study may be increased prices for end-investors. The FCA today revealed the scope of its Investment Platforms Market Study, noting the platform market was becoming "increasingly vertically integrated" with commercial relationships existing between platforms, asset managers, discretionary investment managers and financial advisers. These relationships, it suggested, had the potential to distort competition by encouraging platforms to compete in the interests...