Woodford the pariah finds a friend in obscurity
A little-known US firm shares a taste for risky biotech and has already cashed in as angry fund backers await regulatory action
21 February 2021 • 5:00am
Neil Woodford’s plan to relaunch his career has enraged critics after the ‘epic scale of misery for retail investors’
Credit: Geoff Pugh
Neil Woodford is short of friends this weekend. Critics have lined up to attack the once-revered stockpicker’s comeback bid, revealed in
The investment industry will not forget the “epic scale of misery for tens of thousands of retail investors and reputational damage to the financial sector” Woodford caused, said Richard Wilson, boss of Interactive Investor.
No sign of progress towards a workable deal with the EU for financial services, on which news is due next month. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned in unusually frank terms this week that although the UK has granted ‘equivalence’ to the EU in some financial activities, ‘the EU has not so far done likewise to the UK’ and seems unwilling to do so by reference to a ‘common framework of global standards’. Instead, Brussels is seeking to apply to the UK ‘a standard that the EU holds no other country to’, amounting to ‘rule-taking pure and simple’. Given the importance of financial services to the UK economy, that’s a major defeat of the Brexit principle which seems to be passing almost unnoticed.
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th February 2021 7:46 am
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MPs demand answers on Woodford probe
Treasury select committee chairman Mel Stride has said the FCA should set out a timeline to complete its Woodford investigation.
The watchdog has confirmed it started the investigation into the Woodford Equity Investment fund the same month it was gated in June 2019.
The FCA is also reviewing the actions of Link Fund Solutions, which acted as the authorised corporate director for Woodford Investment Management’s funds.
In a letter from yesterday, Stride wrote: “The FCA should set out when we can expect its investigation to conclude.”
Treasury select committee chairman Mel Stride has said the FCA should set out a timeline to complete its Woodford investigation. The watchdog has confirmed it started the investigation into the Woodford Equity Investment fund the same month it was gated in June 2019. The FCA is also reviewing the actions of Link Fund
Hargreaves looks set to dodge a bullet as litigators home in on Link over Woodford collapse portfolio-adviser.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from portfolio-adviser.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.