FCA making changes to in-specie transfers

Freetrade Chat 🔥
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What we are changing

We are introducing a package of rules for platforms to make it easier for consumers to move from one platform to another without liquidating their assets
We intend the new rules to complement the existing rules on transfers and re-registration. The rules will also form a counterpart to industry initiatives that aim to make it easier for consumers to move their assets from one platform to another.

We expect this (along with the other remedies in the Investment Platforms Market Study) to improve competition in the sector, increase efficiency and improve the consumer experience.

Who this applies to

Background to CP19/12

This consultation set out our policy remedies from the Investment Platforms Market Study (IPMS). The proposed changes were designed to reduce the barriers to effective competition experienced by consumers who use platforms and similar services, as described in the IPMS Final Report(link is external).

Next steps

The new rules will come into force on 31 July 2020.

If your firm is affected by the final rules in this Policy Statment, you should consider what changes you need to make to ensure you have implemented necessary changes by this date.

For exit fees, we are considering responses to the discussion questions in CP19/12 and intend to issue a formal consultation in Q1 2020

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Excellent news. Another nail in HL and the lot of the greedy big boys. They might be still growing, but when they fall they will fall hard.

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Excellent news and long overdue!

With regards to HL, had a discussion with a colleague who is a HL customer around FreeTrade and his argument that it is interesting, but that all FinTech are struggling to scale (he referenced Nutmeg etc) and that people are still wedded to HL.

The long and short of it was that he feels that FreeTrade will only scale up if the market is price sensitive, and he didn’t feel it is.

I wholeheartedly disagree, what are your thoughts?

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I moved my ISA from Nutmeg to Vanguard to reduce costs, also that was before they introduced the ethical investing, whereas Vanguard has 2 SRI funds.

The pot is small enough that the fees are less than £3 per year, so not worth moving to Freetrade yet. I’m also waiting on more SRI type ETFs.

With investing there is a stickiness as you lose the gain and loss graphs over the longer term by switching. Though the fees should be a bigger factor. The few switches I’ve done, including SIPPs have all been sell everything and then more though with the platforms not having the same investments that’s sometimes expected.

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Excellent news undoubtedly
However let’s not forget this is the FCA ‘fixing’ a problem they created.
The RDR was somewhat farcical in execution (but nice in theory) and led directly to the ‘alphabet soup’ of share classes we have today that causes these transfer issues. Allowing providers to only flex their commercial muscle via a special ‘share class’ with special fees was ALWAYS going to cause issues when transferring.
Not many Fintech startups offering units trusts and OEICS though, right?
Either way, good move. But you created this mess FCA- don’t forget that when patting yourself on the back for your customer focus!