One of the world’s biggest fund managers has been given the go-ahead by the City watchdog to provide investment advice in the UK, marking the entrance of an aggressive new competitor in the money management sector. Vanguard, the American fund manager which was launched in 1975 and looks after more than $5.3 trillion of assets, has been given regulatory permission to offer retail investment advice by the Financial Conduct Authority. The company launched in Britain in 2009 and has proved popular with investors for its low-cost passive funds which track different share indices rather than being actively managed. In 2017 the manager launched an online service to sell its funds directly to British investors, as an alternative to fees charged by rivals and brokers.

Source: The Times January 10, 2020 06:22 UTC