The head of Britain's fund industry trade body has quit his job following reports that several firms were on the verge of leaving the organisation.
Daniel Godfrey, chief executive of the Investment Association, was leaving with immediate effect, the body said in a statement, giving no explanation for his abrupt departure.
He will be replaced by Guy Sears, currently director of risk, compliance and legal, on an interim basis. The search was under way for a permanent replacement to lead a group whose members collectively manage more than £5.5 trillion in assets.
A source familiar with the matter said there had been a difference of opinion between Mr Godfrey and the board, which felt a new leadership was needed, but added no single event had triggered his departure.
The move follows reports fund firms, including M&G Investments, the fund arm of insurer Prudential, and Schroders were leaving or considering doing so because of concern about how the trade body was being led.
A second source familiar with the matter said M&G was still an active member of the IA, but had given notice that it did not intend to renew its membership. That position stood on Wednesday despite Mr Godfrey's decision to quit.
A particular worry for some managers was Mr Godfrey's focus on transparency of fees, fund performance and remuneration - also a concern of regulators - over other issues such as pensions saving.
Britain's asset management sector is having to decide how to respond to more intense scrutiny on several regulatory fronts.
Gina Miller, founding partner of investment manager SCM Group and leader of the True and Fair Campaign, which lobbies for fairer fees in fund management, was critical of members for appearing to abandon the trade body in a row over transparency.
"It is an astonishing indictment of the UK fund management industry that even half-way measures aimed at bringing in genuine transparency...are seemingly met with complete refusal by the big guns in this shoddy industry," she said.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority is set to unveil the terms of a sweeping review of fees charged by the sector, and the Bank of England is also studying whether changes are needed in market practices in relation to handling lower liquidity in trading.
The European Union's executive Commission is due later this year to publish a discussion paper on possible tougher rules on fee transparency and other measures to bolster safeguards and choice for investors.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here