Calm down, calm down: Platform row heats up

As supermarkets and wraps engage in ideological warfare ahead of what promises to be a challenging year, Ascentric issues a plea for unity…

Ascentric chief Hugo Thorman recently called on the platform community to adopt a “unified voice” amid an escalating tit-for-tat between the fund supermarket and wrap camps.

While wraps have warned their supermarket rivals face a year of reckoning as they look to transition to the unbundled world, supermarkets have hit back with claims the wrap community also faces a number of challenges.

But Ascentric managing director Hugo Thorman said the platform community would be better positioned to influence regulatory policy if its members spoke with a collective voice.

“I would love to have a unified voice for all platforms – because there is more opportunity to influence positively the regulator in the interests of not just the platform industry but the client,” he said.

“That would be the goal – at the moment it only takes one dissenting voice to undermine a message.”

Although the rival platform camps have previously locked horns over the issue of fund manager rebates – with wraps supporting the proposed ban on transparency grounds and supermarkets lobbying hard against a ban – there is common ground in other areas.

One such area is cash rebates. When the FSA originally proposed banning the payments to client cash accounts in November 2010, all platforms – with the notable exception of Skandia – voiced their opposition to the plan.

But Nucleus chief David Ferguson thinks any move to establish a platform-wide industry lobbying group could be a mistake.

“A large group got together on the cash rebate issue last year and I don’t think that really helped to change the mind of the regulator,” he said.