According to a release announcing the formation of the body, The UK Platform Group aims to fully represent UK retail platform operators and replaces a previous body with the same name, which had only six members: Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity, Axa, Standard Life, Cofunds and Old Mutual.
The body will meet at least on a quarterly basis it said and intends to represent “all retail platform operators, including a range of stockbrokers, execution-only services and advisory platforms” and says it remains open to new members.
The inaugural meeting will take place sometime before the end of the year. A new chairman will be appointed every 12 months, with the first person elected to the job Ed Dymott, head of business development at Fidelity Worldwide Investment.
Dymott said: “The platform market is now a major part of the UK savings landscape, representing millions of investors, a significant proportion of the advisory market, and is approaching £500bn of assets… However, there are industry issues which could benefit from greater collaboration between providers, to ensure that customer outcomes can continually improve and that we drive efficiencies within the market.”
According to the UK Platform Group, the Wealth Management Association will help during the set up phase of the group and will provide the type of independent oversight that this sort of forum requires.
Liz Field, Chief Executive of WMA said: The WMA will be supporting the six month pilot of the UK Platform Group. A third of the group are already members of the WMA and we look forward to working with and supporting the group members.
The founding Member firms are:
7im
AJ Bell
Aegon
Alliance Savings Trust
Ascentric
Avalon
Aviva
Axa Wealth
Barclays
Charles Stanley
Cofunds
Fidelity
Hargreaves Lansdown
HSBC
James Hay
Money on Toast
Novia
Nucleus
Nutmeg
Old Mutual Wealth
Parmenion
Praemium
Share Centre
Standard Life
Tilney Bestinvest
Towry
Transact
Zurich