Following the referral of the investment consultancy services market by the FCA to the CMA earlier this year, the CMA is now entering the phase of further information gathering and has updated its investigations page with the responses to issues statement received from the industry.
The referral by the FCA followed its Asset Management Market Study, which arrived at a provision decision to make the referral having found that the following features were preventing, distorting or restricting competition:
- a weak demand side;
- inability to assess the quality of advice provided by consultants;
- persistent levels of concentration and relatively stable market shares among investment consultants
- high barriers to entry and expansion, and
- vertically integrated business models.
The administrative timetable published indicates that the CMA is now entering the further information gathering phase and is working towards a Provision Decision report in July 2018.