Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Wednesday 15 October 2025. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
Defaqto launches MPS performance comparators
Defaqto has launched MPS Comparator performance averages for passive and active portfolios.
MPS Comparator makes it easy for advisers to assess portfolio performance and for discretionary managers to differentiate their offerings, assisting both with their regulatory responsibilities.
The solution achieves this by allowing advisers to actively compare an MPS portfolio’s various metrics to the average of all those that have similar characteristics in terms of realised volatility and asset allocation.
Can US tech growth keep up with expectations?
US stocks have been climbing, almost uninterrupted, since the April sell-off and the S&P 500 index is up 30% since 7 April, writes Charles Younes, deputy chief investment officer at FE Investments.
The driver, he says, has been an AI boom. A massive bet that today’s impressive, but far from perfect, AI models will generate huge cost savings and drive growth and become embedded into all aspects of daily life.
But this tech-driven rally has been just that. Peel away the surface and many other sectors have lagged, even languished.
Five minutes with…Flagstone
After years of near-zero returns, cash is back in focus. Higher interest rates, market volatility and innovation from challenger banks have reshaped how advisers think about liquidity and client portfolios.
But with inflation still eroding real returns and new digital entrants transforming the savings landscape, advisers face fresh questions about how much cash clients should hold, where to keep it and how to make it work harder.
Flagstone partnerships manager Stephen Bottomley and account relationship manager Ed Waite discussed these themes at Money Marketing Interactive London 2025.
Quote Of The Day
Silver, often seen as gold’s more volatile cousin, has quietly outperformed gold year-to-date
– Iain Pyle, senior investment director at Aberdeen Investments, on the strong performance of strategic minerals like copper, silver and platinum
Stat Attack
New research from Boon Brokers reveals that UK homeowners overwhelmingly reject Rachel Reeve’s proposed capital gains tax (CGT) reforms on main residences.
The survey, of 1,000 UK homeowners, found public sentiment towards the proposal to extend CGT to higher-value primary homes as unfair and potentially damaging to the housing market.
The findings show:
97%
of respondents disagreed that applying CGT to main homes is the fairest way to balance public spending.
78%
believe this tax change would reduce Labour’s chances of re-election.
73%
state that the proposed changes to CGT would be unfair.
71%
of respondents say the proposed changes would make homeowners less likely to sell their main residence.
39%
in the largest single response remarked that the proposed changes to CGT would negatively impact all homeowners.
32%
would prefer to reduce government spending rather than raise new taxes.
Source: Boon Brokers
In Other News
Aubrey Capital Management has announced the launch of a new emerging markets equity strategy to meet the requirements of US accredited investors.
The Edinburgh and London-based specialist investment manager introduced The Aubrey Emerging Markets ex China Strategy on 1 September.
It was launched with $55m of external seed capital and a significant future pipeline.
The EM ex China Strategy, managed by Aubrey’s global emerging markets team, is designed to provide investors access to high-conviction growth opportunities across emerging markets while deliberately excluding China.
The strategy applies Aubrey’s “three 15s” investment approach, targeting companies that can deliver 15% return on equity, 15% cash return on assets and 15% earnings per share growth.
The portfolio focuses on finding local champions in Asia, Latin America and EMEA, with stock selection driven by a bottom-up process that maintains high active share.
Fidelity International has appointed Paul Heselden to the newly created role of head of strategic relationship management for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
In his new role, Heselden will strengthen and expand partnerships with Fidelity’s strategic clients across EMEA.
He will also be tasked with enhancing the firm’s enterprise relationship management capabilities, championing client-centricity and ensuring Fidelity’s solutions align with the long-term ambitions of its clients.
He will oversee the distribution into the UK and Ireland based global financial institutions.
Heselden has over 25 years’ experience in the industry, having joined Fidelity in 2000.
Based in London, he was previously a sales director responsible for distribution in the wholesale UK market.
Italy’s tenacious stance on gold pays off as prices soar (Reuters)
Indonesia plans looser foreign investment rules for mutual funds (Bloomberg)
Top US financiers sound alarm on lending standards (Financial Times)
Did You See?
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out plans to support tokenisation in order to to drive innovation, competition and growth in asset management.
Tokenisation – the process of recording ownership of assets on a blockchain – could lower fund administration costs, improve transparency, and open up access to private markets, the FCA said.
The plans include guidance to provide firms with additional clarity to aid adoption of this new technology.
Ben Centa: Tokenisation and the implications for advice firms
The FCA said it is committed to supporting innovation that helps the UK cement its place as a leading asset management hub.
Currently, it has around 2,600 firms managing £14trn of assets for UK and global clients.
