UK IFAs are among hundreds of creditors facing severe losses in a £60m property scheme marketed as low risk but "tainted with illegality", according to the firm's liquidators.

Hargreaves Lansdown is reducing the minimum investment required to open an account from £500 to £100 in a bid to entice low-value clients.

Jupiter has reported an 18% fall in its profits in the first half of 2014, with the group incurring £5.3m of costs from selling its private client business.

Discretionary fund managers (DFMs) are facing growing pressures to standardise managed portfolio fees as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) considers warning advisers against using any service where costs are not clear.

Transact has appointed Goldman Sachs to broker a full sale of the business, with senior staff open to an exit if a takeover is agreed, Professional Adviser's sister title Investment Week understands.

Jon Taylor, head of the former Co-op life insurance business, is to replace Hugo Thorman as managing director of platform Ascentric.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has admitted his surprise Mansion House speech last month was deliberately designed to 'shake up the markets'.

Platforms are racing to update their conversion programmes as advisers complain about hefty charges when switching clients into clean share classes.

The US Federal Reserve has said it will end its purchases of government bonds in October, bringing to a close the quantitative easing (QE) experiment.

AIM-listed wealth management group European Wealth reported a rise in assets of nearly a quarter in the first six months of the year.