Industry questions where the blame lies for Woodford liquidity issues

Reaction to FCA warning notice

The industry has joined the conversation sparked by the Financial Conduct Authority's warning notice to Neil Woodford and Woodford Investment Management, which has attempted to apportion blame for liquidity failings in the fund.

Director at Fairview Investing Ben Yearsley has argued that Woodford should not be considered as "culpable" as fund authorised corporate director Link Fund Solutions, due to the transparency of the manager. "He told everybody every month what he was doing", Yearsley said, arguing that due to his "upfront" approach the blame for the failings should lie mostly with LFS, which should have prevented it before it began. "It should not have happened in the first place," he said. He noted the changes Woodford made to the fund increasingly moved it away from an equity income product, one o...