Verona Smith, head of platform at Seven Investment Management, said the time was right for a market study as platform assets had more than doubled in the past five years as the vehicles have become mainstream.
She added: “We hope to see a focus on service and end customer engagement. Platform administration is one of those areas that when working no one notices but the moment it doesn’t the effects are huge: it has to be done well.”
The FCA will also assess to what extent platforms are dependent on third-party fund rating firms.
It said its research did not change its overall conclusion that ratings and best-buy lists can on average help investors identify funds that outperform funds not on best-buy lists.
“However, our analysis shows that over our assessment period ratings and best-buy lists did not on average identify funds that outperformed their Morningstar category benchmarks,” it added.
