High Street horrors
Some of the UK's most well known High Street financial brands are the worst at handling investors' money.
HSBC, Abbey, NatWest, Halifax and Legal & General all featured at the bottom of the Moneyspider fund group's ranking table, even though they continue to attract billions of pounds of investors' cash.
The organisation, which independently ranks the funds based on their performance against competitor funds, the FTSE 100 and a cash savings account, estimates that £7bn is languishing in the companies' under-performing funds.
Abbey had just 28.5% of its funds classed in the top A or B categories, with HSBC having 30%. Jut over 31% of NatWest's funds were classed in the top levels and Halifax had 33% at that level.
However, they weren't the worst performing fund managers on the list. That dubious honour went to MLC, which is owned by the National Australia Bank. None of the 10 funds it offers were classed as either A or B.
Moneyspider managing director Bill Ross said: 'The results are truly shocking. Almost every UK citizen has a relationship with the High Street banks and entrusts them with their deposit account or home loan – but that doesn't mean these companies have the skills to manage investment funds.
'With over £7bn of investors' hard earned savings languishing with these monstrous monoliths, it's time investors took action and became more vigilant when making investment decisions.'
Moneyspiders' research also found that some the biggest names in investment management aren't guaranteed to produce positive returns. For example, Fidelity finds itself in 38th position with 60% of its funds being C-rated or below.
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Top of the organisation's list, which it produces every quarter, was Rathbone, with 12 of its 14 funds being ranked A or B. Lazard, St James's Place, Jupiter and Neptune make up the remainder of the top five, with each having over 70% of their funds in the top categories.
On an individual fund basis, it found Investec's Global Equity fund topped the list, returning over 50% to investors in the past year. Schroder's UK Mid 250 fund was second on the list, returning 30%, with Invesco Perpetual's High Income fund coming third. All three funds received a Moneyspider score of over 99%.
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