Following investigations into competition issues in the sectors of fiduciary management and investment consultancy, the Competitions and Markets Authority’s (CMA) published its findings in its ‘Investment Consultants Market Investigation, Final Report 2018’ (Report). The culmination of which was ‘The Investment Consultancy and Fiduciary Management Market Investigation Order 2019’ (Order), which introduced a number of remedies to address factors the CMA identified as adversely affecting competition.
The Order makes important changes that have imposed new reporting requirements on relevant service providers, and on trustees of occupational pensions schemes.
What does the Order cover?
To provide greater transparency, the Order introduced new disclosure rules in relation to both fees and their performance that must be provided by fiduciary managers to potential clients (Parts 5, 6 and 8 of the Order).
Scheme trustees must set strategic objectives for their scheme’s investment consultants to monitor the performance of relevant investment consultants (Part 7 of the Order), for further information read our blog on this here.
The Order also requires scheme trustees to run a competitive tendering process for new or existing fiduciary management appointments for 20% or more of the scheme’s assets (Parts 3 & 4 of the Order).
What should a compliance statement contain?
The parties that come under the remit of the Order must submit an annual compliance certificate (CS) which sets out the ways in which the relevant provisions of the Order have been complied with. Notably, non-compliance must also be reported, within 14 days of it coming to light.
If a party is required to submit a CS in relation to more than one Part of the Order, this may be amalgamated into one document.
Key dates
On 2 June 2020, CMA provided an update on the process and timing for submission of CSs under the Order. Due to COVID-19, new regulations to integrate the Order into Pension Law and transfer monitoring obligations from the CMA onto The Pensions Regulator, that were due to come into force on 6 April 2020, have been postponed. Until these regulations come into force the Order continues to apply.
As such, the first round of CSs should be submitted to the CMA, and are due as follows:
- In relation to Part 6 of the Order – fiduciary managers must submit by 8 July 2020.
- In accordance with Parts 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 of the Order – scheme trustees, providers of investment consultancy and fiduciary management must submit by 7 January 2021.
Trustees should continue to make preparations to comply with those parts of the Order that are applicable to them and engage with their advisers as appropriate to ensure that they are in a position to submit the CSs within the timescales.
If you would like to discuss anything raised in this blog, please get in touch with your usual Brodies contact.
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Trainee Solicitor at Brodies LLP
