Investors Pick Cummings To Head £5.5trn Body

The trade body which represents fund managers overseeing £5.5trn in assets is to name Chris Cummings as its next chief executive as the industry undergoes unprecedented regulatory reform.

Sky News has learnt that Mr Cummings is to replace Daniel Godfrey, who left the Investment Association last autumn amid a row with leading members.

Mr Cummings is a respected figure who has served as chief executive of the lobbying group TheCityUK for the last six years.

The news of his departure will come at a crucial time for the City ahead of June's referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.

Many leading fund management institutions have backed the campaign to remain in the EU, although prominent figures including the IA (KOSDAQ: 038880.KQ - news) 's own chairman, Helena Morrissey, support the push for Brexit.

Sources said the IA and TheCityUK had planned to announce the move on Wednesday but that public statements were likely to be brought forward as a result of Sky News' revelation of the move.

Mr Cummings' start date at the IA is unclear, but he will face a daunting in-tray regardless of whether it falls before the EU referendum.

The fund management industry is confronted with a range of new regulatory hurdles, including transparency on fees and charges, and pressure

Under Mr Godfrey, the IA played a key role in establishing the Investor Forum, a new body set up to improve dialogue between institutional investors and large quoted companies.

Among its other key projects have been to increase the level of disclosure about fees charged by asset managers, which some industry executives regard as a shrewd move to pre-empt more draconian regulation, but others said was doing regulators' job for them.

The IA also took on the crucial role of day-to-day engagement with listed companies by absorbing the investment affairs function of the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

Some fund management giants, including M&G Investments and Schroders (LSE: SDR.L - news) , threatened to resign their membership of the IA but have since relented.

Their move follows a similar decision by Legal & General (LSE: LGEN.L - news) last year to end its membership of the ABI, which it attributed privately to a belief that it could lobby more effectively on a bilateral basis rather than through the trade body.

TheCityUK and the IA declined to comment.