Vanguard advances plans for active fund launches in UK

Index fund pioneer eyes 'handful' of new funds

Low cost mutual fund provider Vanguard Asset Management is a step closer to launching actively-managed funds in the UK.

Vanguard said it is pursuing the possibility of launching "a handful" of low cost active funds within the next 12 months. The US fund group, which pioneered the use of index funds in the 1970s, currently offers only passive products to direct and advised investors in the UK, mostly via platforms. The group has previously indicated its plans to enter the active space in the UK: Vanguard's head of retail Nick Blake told Investment Week last year that active "is a good part of our proposition in the US, and one day we would like to do it here [in the UK]". Vanguard's Blake: Active is ...