Barclays Stockbrokers has almost doubled the size of its Fund Market and has plans to expand further during 2006. At the start of 2005, the Barclays Stockbrokers Funds Market had 272 funds from 18 managers. By the end of 2005, this stood at over 400 funds from 23 managers with new additions including Jupiter, New Star, First State and Invesco.
There has also been an overhaul of the Funds Research Centre, which now provides information on all UK funds. Two new fund data suppliers have been commissioned – Financial Express and Citywire. Financial Express provides fund and sector performance, analysis, fact sheets, Crown Ratings and analytical tools including the latest technology ‘Financial Express Expert Weathervane’, where investors can identify movements in fund holdings, investment inflows and outflows, and sector out performance of funds. The Research Centre also draws in Citywire news, ratings, and Top Manager Moves, which highlights when a top-performing fund manager has moved to take control of an underperforming fund – a possible ‘buy’ indicator.
Barclays Stockbrokers Funds Market offers funds for an initial charge of between 0 and 1.5 per cent, representing significant discounts compared with the standard charge ranging between 4% and 5.5% when you purchase funds direct from the fund manager. If you buy a Funds Market fund within an ISA wrapper, that holding will be free from the standard ISA administration charge.
Chris Stevenson, Product Manager for the Barclays Stockbrokers Funds Market, says:
“Funds can be used to balance risk exposure for active traders, as well as giving new investors a chance to build a broad investment base. Our Funds Market now provides customers with discounted access to a wide range of funds from 23 different fund managers. With an initial charge of between 0 and 1.5 per cent and no charge for sales, Barclays Stockbrokers Funds Market offers one of the most competitively priced way of purchasing funds around.”
There are also three Funds Dealing Packages available, each of which contains four funds that focus on similar investment objectives - Income, Growth or Balanced. The funds have been carefully selected from those funds in Barclays Stockbrokers Funds Market using the expertise of Barclays Investment Research team. Investors just pay an initial charge of 1.5% on the fund investments. Funds Market funds don’t count towards the ISA administration fee, so if investors place their entire ISA allowance into one or more of the packages, there will be no ISA administration fee.
Other features of the Barclays Stockbrokers Funds Market include:
Accessibility – investors can buy a fund through Barclays Stockbrokers Funds Market in any of Barclays Stockbrokers accounts including its MarketMaster, Frequent Traders Club, Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP), ISA or PEP.
A consolidated online view - place, track and manage your funds orders through the web site with a complete view of all your investment with Barclays Stockbrokers, including funds, individual equities, bonds and gilts.
Telephone dealing available on all UK domiciled funds (not restricted to those funds in Funds Supermarket), although charges will vary.
Funds held within an ISA or PEP don’t count towards the ISA/PEP administration charge.
Investors should go to www.stockbrokers.barclays.co.uk or call 0845 601 7788. Notes to Editors:
About Barclays Stockbrokers
Barclays Stockbrokers is the UK’s largest execution only retail broker. Barclays Stockbrokers is Investors Chronicle Broker of the Year 2005, Proshare Best Online Broker (2006) and Shares Magazine Best Online Broker, Best Overseas Sharedealing Service and Broker of the Year (2005).
Barclays Stockbrokers is part of Barclays Wealth Management, the leading wealth manager in the UK with £78.3bn assets under management (2005). The business recently appointed Tom Kalaris as Chief Executive Officer.
Barclays Stockbrokers Funds Market
Barclays Stockbrokers Funds Market is a fund trading platform that allows Barclays Stockbrokers account holder to invest in a range of over 400 funds from 23 fund managers at a discounted initial charge. It can be accessed through Stockbrokers Market Master, Frequent Traders Club, Select ISA, Select PEPs and SIPP account types.
Funds Dealing Packages have a 1.5 per cent initial charge per fund in the package, except for Fidelity Moneybuilder and Standard Life AAA which carry no initial charge and if investors use their full ISA allowance to invest into funds packages, no further charges apply. The minimum investment in a Funds Dealing Package is £2,000.
Financial Express
Financial Express collects fund prices, dividends and histories for around 50,000 UK and offshore funds, and is the leading provider of fund performance, fact sheets, analytical tools and wealth management solutions to the UK financial sector. Clients include fund management companies, fund supermarkets, wrap platforms, financial adviser firms, software houses and personal finance websites.
About Barclays
Barclays PLC is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services. We are one of the largest financial services companies in the world by market capitalisation. Operating in over 60 countries and employing over 113,000 people, we move, lend, invest and protect money for over 25 million customers and clients worldwide. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays PLC has six major businesses.
UK Banking delivers banking products and services to over 14 million retail customers and 775,000 businesses in the UK.
Barclaycard is one of the leading credit card businesses in Europe, and has 11.2 million UK customers and 4.3 million international cards issue.
Barclays Capital, the investment banking division, provides corporate, institutional and government clients with solutions to their financing and risk management needs.
Barclays Global Investors is one of the world’s largest asset managers and a leading provider of investment management products and services.
Wealth Management has over 580,000 affluent and high net worth clients.
International Retail and Commercial Banking is our global retail and commercial banking operation, with over 2 million international clients, in geographies which currently include the Caribbean, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Africa and the Middle East
