Ascentric wrap assets hit £5 billion

Platform provider Investment Funds Direct Limited (IFDL), the parent company of wrap Acentric, has grown assets by 36% since the start of 2012 to £5 billion.

In March 2012 the company has £4 billion.

Hugo Thorman (pictured), Ascentric managing director, said the firm’s white label deals with national IFAs Succession Advisory Services, Towergate Financial, and networks Openwork and Intrinsic had helped boost asset growth.

'Set against a difficult economic and regulatory backdrop, the business continues to thrive driven by a strong performance from our institutional business IFDL that includes Succession, Towergatel, Openwork, Intrinsic and Platform One.

In November, IFDL announced it had struck a deal with SimplyBiz to power its Verbatim Product Centre platform which is due to be launched this month.

Thorman said: '2013 will see the start of a new era for financial services with the implementation of retail distribution review and advisers requiring greater support. Only those organisations that are willing and able to adapt will survive. In the platform space, although we will all have many new challenges ahead, I am extremely confident we will be amongst the major platforms leading the way.'