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A disgraced fund manager’s plans to set up a new firm in Jersey - less than two years after the collapse of his previous venture left 300,000 people “scrabbling to make ends meet” - has sparked calls for an independent inquiry.
Neil Woodford’s ‘Woodford Investment Management’ fell apart in October 2019 amid mounting investor withdrawals.
It came after serious concerns arose over listings that the fund had on Guernsey’s stock exchange.
As a result of the saga, investors suffered significant losses, and around £200m of their cash is still to be returned to them. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority started an investigation, but is still yet to publish its findings.
In his first public comments since his eponymous fund hit disaster, Mr Woodford told the Sunday Telegraph last week that he was “very sorry for what I did wrong”, and revealed he was due to start a new biotech-focused enterprise bearing his name in Jersey and Buckinghamshire.
Pictured: Mr Woodford announced his comeback in an exclusive interview in the Sunday Telegraph.
Currently, no recently-registered entities bearing the name ‘Woodford’ appear on Jersey’s company registry or list of regulated entities.
According to campaigners Gina and Alan Miller, Mr Woodford’s intended return raises “alarming regulatory and public policy implications”, particularly given that a conclusion to the FCA’s deliberations “does not appear to be in sight.”
Mrs Miller previously brought a legal challenge against the UK Government over its authority to implement Brexit without parliamentary approval, and successfully challenged the Government's prorogation of Parliament in 2019.
On behalf of the True and Fair Campaign, which they founded to champion reform of the finance sector, Mr and Mrs Miller have now written to the UK’s Treasury Select Committee to call for an independent review into what went wrong.
They described the apparent lack of progress in the FCA investigation as “nothing short of an insult to the hundreds of thousands of small investors whose lives have been turned upside down, many of which have lost their life savings.”
“The narrow scope of the investigation and its lateness makes any findings the FCA now comes up with woefully late and utterly meaningless,” they added.
Our Open letter from @True_and_FairUK to @CommonsTreasury calling for an Independent Inquiry into #Woodford scandal
— Gina Miller (@thatginamiller) February 16, 2021
"We urge you...to act with haste as Mr Woodford & @TheFCA actions discredit both the regulator and the UK FS sector. The British public deserve much better." pic.twitter.com/8wOqjjqION
The letter went on to describe the decision to allow Mr Woodford to remain on the FCA’s register - allowing him to continue investment business - as “shameful” and said that it “makes a complete mockery” of the new set of codes in the UK aimed at raising the bar in terms of finance managers’ conduct and making management accountability more “rigorous and transparent”.
It said it was “high time” for an independent investigation “so that important lessons can be learned”, adding: “Too often the perpetrators of financial wrongdoing seem to slip off the hook, many to start up new lucrative operations while it is ordinary savers who suffer the brunt of this wrongdoing.”
The letter concluded: “At a time when public policymakers should be encouraging the public to save, it is simply unacceptable that major investigations such as the one into Woodford are being delayed in this way. We believe it ought to be a very serious source of public policy concern that high profile individuals such as Mr Woodford can be allowed to recommence trading, with the slate ostensibly wiped clean, when over 300,000 people some of whom may be your own constituents, are scrabbling to make ends meet after seeing their life savings decimated and their prudent actions and hopes for a secure and comfortable future suddenly and unexpectedly dashed.
“We urge you and your colleagues to act with haste as Mr Woodford and the FCA’s actions discredit both the regulator, and the entire UK financial services sector at a time when trust in the sector has rarely been more crucial. The British public deserve much better.”
Currently, no recently-registered entities bearing the name ‘Woodford’ appear on Jersey’s company registry or list of regulated entities. However, the name 'WCM Partners (Jersey) Limited was reserved on 21 January 2021, though the entity itself does not appear to have been registered.
Pictured top: Neil Woodford's announcement of plans for a new venture in Jersey prompted calls from campaigner Gina Miller (right), co-founder of the 'True and Fair Campaign', for an independent inquiry into the collapse of his previous Guernsey-linked venture. (Keith Edkins/Wiki)
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