On 17 November 2023, there was published a letter from the Chair of the House of Commons’ Treasury Sub-Committee on Financial Services Regulations, Harriett Baldwin MP, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt MP, in which the Sub-Committee referred to concerns related to the requirements imposed on investment companies by cost-disclosure requirements which may create the impression that they are unduly expensive. The Sub-Committee asks if HM Treasury could provide its assessment of the following:

• The extent to which cost transparency requirements imposed on investment companies is creating unfairness, or is causing undue problems for the industry, including through any double-counting of costs.
• How such cost disclosures are being used by market participants, such as wealth managers, fund-of-funds managers and discretionary fund managers, and independent financial advisers, and any support services they use, such as software providers.
• The genesis of any identified problems, including how they came about, and to what extent remediation of the identified problems is needed through changes to regulation and/or legislation.
• The timeframe for any permanent remediation.
• Whether interim relief can be provided before a more permanent solution is found, and if so, how, and how quickly such relief can be provided.

The Sub-Committee asks for HM Treasury’s response by 28 November 2023.