FCA quizzes platforms on offering Odey funds to retail investors

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The UK’s top financial regulator is pressing investment platforms including AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown and Halifax on their continued offering of funds from Odey Asset Management to retail investors, people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times.

A string of funds have already been suspended in the fallout from sexual misconduct allegations against the hedge fund firm’s founder, Crispin Odey.

The allegations led to his ousting from the firm he founded in 1991 and have prompted banks that provided key services to the hedge fund to sever ties. He strenuously denies the allegations.

Odey Asset Management, which managed about $4.4bn before the scandal hit, is in the process of breaking itself up by selling off funds and the firm remains the subject of a two-year-old investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority into corporate governance issues.

According to people familiar with the situation, the FCA contacted investment platforms this month about their continued offering of funds branded under Odey’s name, or under Brook, the name given to funds managed by other partners of Odey Asset Management, including Oliver Kelton and James Hanbury.

One person familiar with the discussions said the FCA wanted the investment platforms to explain how continuing to offer the funds was in the best interests of their clients, given the issues at Odey Asset Management.

Odey Asset Management declined to comment.

Risks facing retail investors — who may not have heard about Odey Asset Management’s difficulties — include possible further suspensions and restrictions on withdrawals.

A person at one investment platform said there had “been a conversation” with the FCA about the continued presence of Odey-related funds but that the regulator was not “challenging” the platform’s approach.

A person at another platform said while the funds were on offer, their platform had not sold a single Odey investment since the FT first reported the allegations against Crispin Odey on June 8. “These are relatively specialist funds and are held by very few customers,” the person added.

A fourth said their platform had not removed the funds because there was a “protocol” for taking funds offline. This had not been activated “as [the] FCA [is] monitoring the situation, [is] keen to stabilise and will advise us and other platforms on next steps”.

The platforms offer the funds on a supermarket-style platform where DIY investors can pick and choose their holdings, rather than promoting or recommending them, meaning that investors have to search for them to buy.

The FCA’s conversations with the platforms had been wider than asking about why Odey and Brook funds were still available for purchase, according to several people familiar with the situation.

The watchdog has also been asking for information on the level of buying and selling of the funds, and has been talking to platforms about the orderly transfer of any funds that are being sold by Odey Asset Management to third parties.

The FCA, Halifax, Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell all declined to comment.

Odey Asset Management said this week that it was in “advanced talks” about transferring four funds run by Kelton to investment boutique SW Mitchell Capital. Odey Asset Management is also trying to move certain other funds, and portfolio managers, to new owners.