NCI: Asset management M&A is reducing competitiveness and stunting boutiques

Reducing investor choice

"A more proportionate approach to regulation" is needed in order to enable boutique asset managers to flourish amid continued consolidation in the sector, according to a new study from think tank New City Initiative (NCI).

In the policy paper M&A in Asset Management: Is it strangling boutiques? the NCI, which is a thinktank for boutique asset managers, said the increase in M&A activity seen over the past 18 months will reduce competition by widening the gulf between large and small firms as well as reducing investor choice. Some members of the thinktank said regulators should keep an eye on consolidation and take action or consult the industry in order to ensure competition is not stifled. NCI chairman Jamie Carter, though, called for "a more proportionate approach to regulation" to ensure the UK has "a...