Government opens retail access to corporate bonds

Brendan Callan, CEO of FXCM and Tradu, responding to the government’s new retail investment campaign, which lowers the minimum investment in corporate bonds from £100,000 to £1.

Brendan welcomes the move as a step in the right direction but believes it should be part of a broader push to rebuild the UK’s retail investing culture.

He calls on the government to remove structural barriers to retail investment and inclusivity, such as the stamp duty on share trading, as well as requiring retail allocations to be included as standard in IPOs, secondary fundraisings and corporate bond issues.

Brendan Callan, CEO of FXCM and Tradu, said:

“Giving retail investors access to corporate bonds starting at £1 is a positive step to broaden participation, and will help put UK savings to work in our most successful businesses.

“However, limiting reform to bonds and a temporary stamp holiday for new IPOs falls short of the regulatory change required to revitalise our investor culture. If we really want a Golden Age for the City, we must completely remove barriers such as stamp duty that discourage people from investing In UK shares in the first place.

“If the government wants more UK savings invested in Britain, it needs to make retail inclusivity the default, from scrapping the share tax to requiring every IPO, secondary fundraise and bond issue to include an allocation for retail investors. Access will only work if it’s embedded structurally, not as an extra.”

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