Godfrey also wants to develop a culture of “longer-term thinking”, a virtue that the funds industry has been promoting for years and, in an age of instant equity and ETF trading and pricing, the message of investing in unit trusts and OEICs over a period of years, not weeks, remains prevalent and vital.
Anyone who’s escaped meetings with sharp-suited marketeers who converse about promoting “thought leadership” and “value-added bespoke solutions” will know talk is cheap unless it comes with practical changes.
From a fund group perspective, the transfer of the so-called Institutional Voting Information Service, to the enlarged body may well give managers a stronger platform in terms of issues of shareholder voting and corporate governance.
Under Godfrey’s helm, the IMA has actually made a fairly decent job of getting its message across, at least to the man on the street. Nearly a year on from its launch, I’m not sure entirely how many visitors come through its consumer website investinginfunds.org, but it has been a useful innovation nonetheless.
Wicked whispers
With Robert Hingley, the current director of investment affairs at the ABI, set to step down as part of the merger, a concern will be whether the tie-up will mean job losses. There are already whispers that this merger is more about cost savings rather than creating something genuinely new.
While Godfrey is very much the figurehead for the IMA, it will also be fascinating to see who it will pick for its new chairman, with Douglas Ferrans going to pastures new.
With the FCA proving to have its hands full with RDR and other regulatory challenges coming from across Europe, there’s a big opportunity for this new organisation – whatever it may be called – to really make its mark.
In particular, there are issues to be addressed in terms of how funds are classified and how fund groups work with platforms in making their vehicles more readily available to both wealth managers and end-investors alike.
“This is a sensible move from both the ABI and the IMA as it has always seemed slightly counter-intuitive to have two trade bodies focusing on the position and oversight of fund managers,” says Ed Dymott, head of business development at Fidelity Worldwide Investment.
“It would be helpful if this were to look at issues such as fund classification to ensure there is one uniform way of the industry looking at funds and fund sectors. In some cases in the past there has been difference in the way that sectors were treated.”
