On the go: The Competition and Markets Authority has updated its timeline for compliance with orders in its investigation into the investment consultant and fiduciary management sector, reminding trustees that they have until January 7 2021 to submit statements to the markets regulator.
Finding evidence of an adverse effect on competition in the two markets in a 2018 report, the CMA made a number of reforms to the occupational pensions investment landscape in a 2019 order.
The watchdog ordered that trustees of pension scheme must conduct competitive tenders for any fiduciary management mandate covering more than 20 per cent of their assets, while companies offering both investment consultancy and fiduciary services must separate their advice to clients from any marketing materials.
Fiduciary managers were also ordered to provide existing clients with a disaggregated statement of fees, and adhere to new standards on disclosing fees and performance to prospective buyers.
On investment consultancy, trustees were ordered to set strategic objectives to measure their consultants against, while providers of advice were told to standardise the way they present performance of recommended asset managers.
An update on the CMA’s website on Tuesday reminded parties named in the order that they have until January 7 to submit compliance statements to the CMA, which oversees the implementation of its orders until they are brought into regulations by a government department.
Fiduciary managers must evidence their compliance with performance standards by July 8 this year.
The timing of the compliance requirements could be altered if the Department for Work and Pensions brings the CMA’s order into its own secondary legislation, according to experts.
“If the Department for Work and Pensions finalises the regulations implementing the CMA’s order before that date, it is likely that a compliance statement would be made via the scheme return,” concluded law firm Squire Patton Boggs in a newsletter.
