Sier, a vocal critic of opaque asset management practices in the past, will head a group of industry insiders and investors to agree a standard disclosure for mainstream asset management firms, the regulator revealed on Wednesday.
He is the managing director of boutique consultancy firm Stonefish Consulting and a professor of practice at Newcastle Business School.
He is also a special envoy working with the UK Treasury on how best to support regional Fintech hubs.
In an update, the FCA said: “We want to see more consistent and standardised disclosure of costs and charges to institutional investors.
“We have appointed Dr Chris Sier to chair a working group of industry and investor representatives on institutional disclosure, with a view to agreeing a template for disclosure of costs and charges.”
The working group forms part of the FCA’s asset management market study, the final report of which was published in June this year.
The first meeting of the group is expected to take place in September with an agreement expected by the end of the year on how firms should disclose costs and charges.
It will also examine how best to promote the use of a new template and ensure accuracy as well as how the template should evolve over time.
A second working group, chaired by the FCA itself, will look at how firms can make fund objectives clearer to investors.
The regulator said: “The market study made clear the importance of funds having clear objectives, and identified room for improvement in this area. Clear objectives allow investors to understand what a fund is trying to do, compare different funds, and monitor how well the fund is performing.”
