Investors urge new government to maintain and promote UK’s leading investment management industry

7 November 2019

The Investment Association publishes on its website:

“The next government should promote the UK as the global leader for investment management by ensuring a modern regulatory system that focuses on international competitiveness as well as consumer protection.

The Investment Association (IA), which represents over 250 of the UK’s investment managers has today published an investment management industry manifesto detailing a series of policy recommendations to ensure the sector maintains its existing world-leading position.
The UK investment management industry currently manages more than £7.7trn on behalf of savers and investors around the world, and employs more than 115,000 people across the country.

The industry’s key policy recommendations include:

Securing a future relationship with the EU that recognises the full breadth and depth of cross-border investment management activity between the UK and the EU, and best protects savers and investors wherever they are located. This will depend on close regulatory alignment and supervisory cooperation with the EU, whilst developing a regulatory system which upholds the UK’s position as a competitive and attractive place to do business for international investment managers.

Creating an immigration and visa system to make it easy for UK-based businesses to attract highly skilled talent and to allow British employees to gain experience overseas.

Reforming the Apprenticeship levy to make the current framework more cost-effective so it meets the skills needs of the investment management industry. Specifically, the IA is asking for higher financial services funding for levels six and seven; a new conversion course to enable people with different educational backgrounds to enter the sector; and for employers to be able to use the levy to improve the skills of current employees.

Helping the industry to further invest in Britain’s infrastructure and build local communities by changing the ‘permitted links’ rule to allow DC pension schemes to invest in infrastructure; and reviewing the pensions charge cap to enable investment managers the flexibility to invest in large projects for greater longer-term returns for savers.

Supporting the IA’s new Long-Term Asset Fund which builds on the UK’s high standards of customer protection, whilst giving institutional savers wider access to more illiquid assets and the flexibility to structure redemptions in a way that reflects the time it takes to sell the investment.”

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