Assessment of Value regime called into question as fund closures remain stagnant

133 closures in 2021

Fund pickers and research firms have called into question the success of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Assessment of Value (AoV) regime, as the number of fund closures has remained the same over the past ten years.

Figures from Morningstar for Investment Week showed that since 2012, the average number of fund closures has been 146, with the highest in 2012 at 191. The figures further showed that last year was below the ten-year average at 133, despite the fact the FCA introduced AoVs in 2019. AoV reports were one of the remedies from the regulator's 2017 Asset Management Market Study, which found evidence of "weak demand-side pressure" and "lack of competition". The regime requires firms to consider seven prescribed criteria to assess the value of their funds and publish the results annually. At...