I have been trying to buy more Oakley Capital Investments (LON:OCI) through HL. It is impossible.
OCI say:
The situation has come about following the FCA’s recent decision to scrap the requirement for investment companies, like OCI, to follow misleading old rules on cost disclosure. Previously the rules led to a double disclosure of costs. Like any listed company OCI discloses its costs twice a year in its report and accounts and the published net asset value (NAV) and therefore the share price are net of these costs. The prior rules also forced the disclosure of these costs a 2nd time, which were presented to retail investors on trading platforms or via their wealth managers as an additional cost that you the shareholder had to pay OCI on an annual basis.
The FCA has now rectified this anomaly with its latest guidance, which OCI is following. The investment industry has welcomed this much needed change in regulation and most platforms have adapted to this change. We regret that Hargreaves Lansdown is trying to force trusts to comply with the old rules on threat of being deplatformed. This is not in the spirit of the FCA’s new guidelines and it effectively reduces access to retail investors of investment companies like OCI.
Whilst both we and you will find this position very frustrating, we remain aligned with the FCA statement, HM Treasury, the wider industry, and the legal advice received by the Company. We feel that this change in cost disclosure is long overdue: it prevents the misrepresentation of future OCI returns to retail investors and so must be supported. Hargreaves Lansdown’s approach on this matter sets it apart as an outlier in the industry and is a position which we believe in time will change. We are continuing our discussion with them to try and find a solution.
HL are not budging. They say:
Following an update by the FCA, Investment trusts became distanced from the standard PRIIPs framework. Meaning they were no longer obliged to breakdown their full costs and charges on their Key Investor Document. Some issuers have therefore taken the decision to remove their investment charges from our website. HL have taken the business position that any Investment Trusts that populate their ongoing costs as 0 will be updated to sales only. Even though we are not required to limit these investments to sales. As a…
