Cost Transparency Firm Hails Quartet Of Exceptional Asset Managers [updated]

ClearGlass, a provider of investment cost analysis tools, has praised a quartet of asset managers for “exceptional commitment” to complying with new UK disclosure standards.

Baillie Gifford, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), Majedie Asset Management and MFS “distinguished themselves by seeking pre-compliance, leveraging internal development teams to rapidly develop the ability to collect data, asking detailed and insightful questions, and/or by returning data within incredibly short timeframes”, ClearGlass said in a statement.

The company has analysed costs based on data from 105 asset managers, acting on behalf of UK pension funds. Five investment groups declined to provide data to ClearGlass, it said – although it has refused to name them.

“ClearGlass is not at liberty to reveal the names of the five managers who have so far declined to provide any data, as this is a matter for the pension clients of these asset managers and… regulators,” the analytics firm said.

Chris Sier, co-founder of ClearGlass and one of the architects of the UK’s new institutional cost transparency code, said: “The response from asset managers has been very encouraging and certainly better than we had anticipated.

“We are keen to acknowledge the stand-out performance of these four firms in particular as each, in its own way, has proven itself to be totally committed to the cause of full cost transparency at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Baillie Gifford, LGIM, Majedie and MFS all supported a previous incarnation of the disclosure code introduced by the Local Government Pension Scheme. Baillie Gifford director Piers Lowson and Majedie director James Mowat were members of the industry-wide Institutional Disclosure Working Group that came up with the disclosure templates now in use.

This article was amended on 10 May to add James Mowat as a member of the IDWG.