FCA: Investors overlooking passives despite £109bn in expensive 'passive mirrors'

Passives underrepresented on buylists

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found passive funds are being underrepresented on retail buylists, meaning investors could be overlooking these options when choosing products.

In its Asset Management Market Study, released today, the FCA said the way passive offerings have been presented to investors "might have resulted in some investors overlooking passive funds when making their investment decision". The study found weak price competition in the asset management space, as well as evidence of price clustering on active equity funds, with the majority of active funds failing to outperform their benchmarks after costs. Some £109bn of assets is sitting in "expensive" active funds that charge higher fees but closely mirror passives in terms of similarity to t...