In its increasingly kindler and gentler fashion – as evidenced by its approach to hedge fund regulation, among other things – the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority is calling on the British fund management industry to come up with a way to make sure retail investors get the biggest bang for their commission buck. The FSA has said it prefers to appoint an investor advocate for this purpose, but Dan Waters, FSA director of retail policy, told Reuters that the agency “will allow firms to decide for themselves how best to achieve the outcome we want to see.” The central issue is how to provide greater transparency for retail investors by unbundling the costs of research and executing trades, just as it has been doing for wholesale customers since January.
