Cofund's clients will be able to trade Barclays Stockbrokers' structured products following the recent appointment of Barclays Stockbrokers as its new exclusive provider of stockbroking facilities.
The move confirms Barclays' efforts to become a key provider in the UK's platform space while addressing some of the challenges the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) will bring to the structured products market.
Barclays Capital Investor Solution's MD, Colin Dickie, who is responsible for developing the bank's structured products content for retail distribution, said during a press roundtable last week that one of the focuses of the firm in 2012 will be to consolidate Barclays' role in this space: "Barclays' products are already available through six UK platforms (Ascentric, Nucleus, Cofunds, SEI, Novia and Transact)," he said. "We will continue engaging with independent platforms as they get ready for a post-RDR environment as this will be a key space to roll out our investment propositions."
As reported by SRP.com, Cofunds has had structured products on its agenda for a while as it considers them to have a 'completely transparent adviser fee structure' and are RDR-ready.
The Cofunds Stock Trading Service is currently being piloted with ten pilot accounts and provides advisers with online access to Barclays Stockbrokers via the Cofunds website. The new service will allow clients to access multiple asset classes including structured products, stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds and investment trusts, and trade these on behalf of their clients.
"When we launched our RDR roadmap in September last year we said we would pilot a stocktrading service, and true to our word we have done just that. With advisers wanting to consolidate their clients' holdings on a single platform, this new service will offer greater investment choice," said Alastair Conway, sales and marketing director at Cofunds. "With Barclays Stockbrokers being the largest execution-only stockbroker in the UK, they are able to improve on the best price available at the time of execution through the 'Barclays Stockbrokers Price Improver' facility which in 2011 beat the best price in the market 88% of the time, saving investors an average of £11.39 a trade."
Money can be transferred from the Cofunds Cash Account to Barclays Stockbrokers and vice versa or directly by the client via bank transfer, debit card or direct debit.