Interactive Investor Moves To Restrict Poor Value Investments On Its Platform

The platform said it is not currently publishing a list of unavailable investments, but it is alerting customers who have regular investments set up. 

"As the process evolves and while the Consumer Duty regime matures, it is difficult to know how long they may be unavailable for when we are waiting for fair value assessments," said Jemma Jackson, head of PR at ii. "Restrictions, we would at least hope, need not be long term." 

interactive investor calls for UK firms to improve shareholder communications

Of funds currently restricted, ii said the vast majority have been imposed because the manager itself has said it was not value for money, adding that these are "overwhelmingly low demand funds". 

The platform is also assessing funds that sit outside of the scope of Consumer Duty, such as European-based funds that have not supplied a fair value assessment. 

"In the absence of a VFM assessment report, we have contacted fund groups and said that if they wanted to complete a value for money assessment they could (although they technically do not have to if they are offshore)," said Jackson.

"But in the absence of a value for money assessment report, we use a third party tool which will indicate whether a fund is value for money or not. Different platforms will use different tools in these circumstances, which could lead to different outcomes."

Fidelity platform restricts Crux European Special Situations fund after Richard Pease retirement

Fidelity's personal investment platform has so far restricted new investments into trusts including MIGO Opportunities, AVI Global, Momentum Multi-Asset Value and abrdn PE Opportunities and funds including CT Global Managed Portfolio Income.

Under the restrictions, investors are still able to redeem existing holdings in the fund either by selling to cash or by switching to other funds. The firm does not comment on individual decisions. 

The platform's governance framework considers whether the investment offers value for money for customers or does not perform as expected, liquidity, media coverage, service level key performance indicators, complexity status and MiFID II status.

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