Cofunds passes ten year milestone

Cofunds, the UK’s leading independent platform for financial planning, has been providing platform services to the UK financial services market for ten years this February.
What started out as a simple fund supermarket for ISAs and investment fund trading  back in 2001, has evolved significantly over the past decade  into a sophisticated, scalable and profitable platform for financial planning, with an enviable market share.
At the end of 2010 Cofunds had approximately 28% market share*, over £30bn in assets under administration and over 500,000 customer accounts.  It is the UK’s largest independent platform meaning it doesn’t offer investment management or advice – but does provide access to over 1,500 funds from over 90 fund managers to almost 5,000 intermediary firms.  Profitable since Q3 2007, Cofunds sees monthly volumes of over 3.5 million trades.
As well as supporting advisers and execution-only brokers, the platform has also offered a specialist dealing and sub-custody service since 2007 enabling Cofunds to build up a strong client base of large nominee accounts including private wealth managers, stock brokers, pension providers and global custodians.
Alastair Conway, Sales & Marketing Director at Cofunds, said: “We’ve come a long way over the last ten years and this is thanks to the support of the advisers and institutional clients using our technology to power their businesses.  We’re in a strong position, both strategically and financially, to meet the challenges brought about by the RDR.  Being profitable has enabled us to invest in the platform, ensuring we have the right technology, the right people and the right research to help lead the way through this time of change.”
* Source: Fundscape Platform Report Q4 2010 – based on a like for like basis.