FCA Consultation - Corporate bonds and retail investors
Posted: August 22nd, 2023, 8:35 am
Regrettably retail investors are currently almost entirely locked out of the corporate bond market for a number of reasons but primarily because most corporate bonds are and have been for some time now issued in £100k denominations. It’s impossible to construct a portfolio containing a broad range of corporate bonds as there are less than 50 available to retail investors, most of which mature in the next 5 years and a large proportion of which are high yield/junk.
The consultation is here:
https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/calls-input/non-equity-securities-engagement-paper-4
More information in relation to corporate bonds and the consultation from Winterfloods is here:
https://www.winterflood.com/time-open-uk-bond-markets-and-give-investors-more-options
If we wish to change the current situation then I would encourage you to find five minutes of your time to respond to the consultation.
I have done so and a copy of my letter is included in post 2 of this thread. Feel free to copy my letter or cut and paste the bits you like as the basis for your own letter. Alternatively I have also attached a template for a second letter which is far shorter and perhaps more direct on the points at issue.
Please include FCA Engagement Paper 4 Non Equity Securities in the subject fields of your email as the FCA are using the same email address for 5 other consultations they are running at the moment. The consultation closes on 29th September.
It is my hope that the FCA may be bombarded with very many thousands of letters and a result make a clear recommendation to benefit retail investors. If you write to the FCA could you confirm on this thread and add 1 to the counter so we have some idea of how much interest there is in this topic.
Looking forward:
1. Lemon Fool is the home for retail fixed investors and I hope that we may be able to form a group to be included in the focus groups that FCA plan to run later this year.
2. In a few days I will be promoting this issue on another well known Bulletin Board and referring them here to add to the number of letters to the FCA.
3. I am considering how to approach getting some media exposure on this topic and when would be the best time to do this. I have no background in this area and I know some posters do. I would appreciate it anyone feels able to drop me a PM on this.
Finally, I am just a private investor who is unhappy with the way things currently are and my sole motivation is to get to a situation where I can invest in a broad range of Sterling denominated corporate bonds.
I find the current situation totally incomprehensible, beyond belief if you stand back and look at it. How is it possible I can buy equities, peer to peer, crowdfunding, peer to peer, minibonds, further invest in shares in tiny companies in tiny countries half way round the world, yet am unable to invest in corporate bonds in Shell, Diageo, Astrazeneca or any other number of well known household names? It is a million miles away from being acceptable.
We really don’t need an engagement paper, then a focus group, then a consultation and then a recommendation followed by a change in the law to sort this out. It’s just common sense.
The consultation is here:
https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/calls-input/non-equity-securities-engagement-paper-4
More information in relation to corporate bonds and the consultation from Winterfloods is here:
https://www.winterflood.com/time-open-uk-bond-markets-and-give-investors-more-options
If we wish to change the current situation then I would encourage you to find five minutes of your time to respond to the consultation.
I have done so and a copy of my letter is included in post 2 of this thread. Feel free to copy my letter or cut and paste the bits you like as the basis for your own letter. Alternatively I have also attached a template for a second letter which is far shorter and perhaps more direct on the points at issue.
Please include FCA Engagement Paper 4 Non Equity Securities in the subject fields of your email as the FCA are using the same email address for 5 other consultations they are running at the moment. The consultation closes on 29th September.
It is my hope that the FCA may be bombarded with very many thousands of letters and a result make a clear recommendation to benefit retail investors. If you write to the FCA could you confirm on this thread and add 1 to the counter so we have some idea of how much interest there is in this topic.
Looking forward:
1. Lemon Fool is the home for retail fixed investors and I hope that we may be able to form a group to be included in the focus groups that FCA plan to run later this year.
2. In a few days I will be promoting this issue on another well known Bulletin Board and referring them here to add to the number of letters to the FCA.
3. I am considering how to approach getting some media exposure on this topic and when would be the best time to do this. I have no background in this area and I know some posters do. I would appreciate it anyone feels able to drop me a PM on this.
Finally, I am just a private investor who is unhappy with the way things currently are and my sole motivation is to get to a situation where I can invest in a broad range of Sterling denominated corporate bonds.
I find the current situation totally incomprehensible, beyond belief if you stand back and look at it. How is it possible I can buy equities, peer to peer, crowdfunding, peer to peer, minibonds, further invest in shares in tiny companies in tiny countries half way round the world, yet am unable to invest in corporate bonds in Shell, Diageo, Astrazeneca or any other number of well known household names? It is a million miles away from being acceptable.
We really don’t need an engagement paper, then a focus group, then a consultation and then a recommendation followed by a change in the law to sort this out. It’s just common sense.