Another step in supporting TCF
Friday, 17 October 2008
Following its recent campaign on behalf of IFAs to persuade all platforms to offer re-registration, Ascentric, the whole of market wrap provider, has further emphasised its commitment to IFAs and the principles of 'Treating Customers Fairly' (TCF) by providing IFAs with access to the 'TCF Centre' facility at a significant discount of 20%.
The TCF Centre, now available via the Ascentric Wrap platform from just £8 per month per user, was developed by FinQS to help firms gather online client feedback, collate results and produce action plans to address key trends in their Management Information (MI) in line with the FSA's six defined consumer TCF principles. Feedback scores can also be benchmarked against internal standards or against the wider IFA community to help identify areas of poor or excellent customer perception which leads to increased marketing and referral opportunities.
Sim Sangha, Sales Director at FinQS stated, "Ascentric is keen to demonstrate its TCF credentials by not only reducing post sale barriers within the wrap space but also recognising its own role in the distribution channel and its responsibility assisting advisory firms in meeting their TCF obligations at minimal cost.
"The affiliation with Ascentric is great news and allows low cost access for IFAs to produce their MI. In addition it supports their processes and evidences success and improvement".
Hugo Thorman, Executive Managing Director of Ascentric said, "The TCF Centre is a tremendous tool and should be very useful to IFAs so it was an obvious addition to our Wrap platform. The whole issue of TCF is very important and those organisations which resist change rather than embrace willingly the various principles and offer best practice will find it tough going."
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Ascentric
Mark Murphy
Email: mark.murphy@ascentric.co.uk
Tel: 01225 787208
Mobile: 07788 107373
FinQS
Sim Sangha
Sales Director
Email: Sim.sangha@fings.co.ukTel: 01564 71153
Concise Public Relations:
Martin Wood
Email: martin@concisepr.com
Tel: 01252 656435
Mobile: 07946 527240
Note to Editors:
FinQS is a provider of technology and solutions to the financial services industry. The focus for FinQS is on delivering quality solutions using the latest technologies and the services of experienced professionals within the financial services industry.
FinQS is a privately owned company established in 2007. FinQS is a trading name of Financial Quality Solutions Limited.
Ascentric and Fundsdirect are the trading names of Investment Funds Direct Limited.
Investment Funds Direct Limited was founded in 1982, and Fundsdirect launched as the UK's first online fund supermarket in December 1999. Since that time, the company has built on their reputation as a leading UK fund supermarket to provide Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) with a Wrap service under the brand name of Ascentric.
Ascentric is a whole of market Wrap service, available exclusively to IFAs and offers a fully integrated online investment management and dealing platform. It also enables IFAs to transfer their clients' assets onto a single platform to provide them with the ability to manage their client's financial needs in just one place. This is obviously a considerable enhancement to the existing, time-consuming practice of IFAs introducing their clients to a number of different product providers.
In October 2007, a majority holding of Investment Funds Direct Group Limited was acquired by Royal London Group.
For further information about Ascentric and Fundsdirect, please visit either www.ascentric.co.uk or www.fundsdirect.co.uk
Royal London Group is a specialist financial service provider. Its businesses focus on those sectors of the market which value premium propositions, operating through a number of brands:
- Scottish Life – UK pensions market
- Bright Grey – UK protection market
- Scottish Life International – offshore investment markets
- Scottish Provident International – offshore investment markets
- RLAM – fund management
- RLAS – life and pensions administration
- Fundsdirect / Ascentric – funds supermarket; Wrap Platform
Royal London is one of the stronger life and pension companies in the UK, and has a strong track record for with-profits performance.
Royal London is the largest mutual life and pensions company in the UK with Group funds under management of £32.6 billion. Group businesses serve around three million customers and employ 2,630 people (figures quoted are as at 31 March 2008).