Moneyfacts Group

Moneyfacts
Financial services
Founded 1988
Headquarters Norwich, Norfolk, UK
Key people
 John Woods (Chairman); Marcus Rudd (Managing Director)
Number of employees
 over 80
Website www.moneyfactsgroup.co.uk
www.moneyfacts.co.uk

Moneyfacts Group Plc is a financial information company founded in 1988[1] based in Norwich in the United Kingdom employing over 80 people.

History

Moneyfacts was founded in 1988 by current chairman John Woods. It was first launched as a six-page monthly factsheet that brought personal finance products together to allow for comparison. This has since expanded to a range of magazines: Moneyfacts (personal finance products); Business Moneyfacts (business finance products); and Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts (pension and investment products). The brand now also includes a price comparison website (Moneyfacts.co.uk), product analysers, Treasury Reports, Executive Reports, Awards and product Star Ratings. Moneyfacts Data is used widely throughout the UK's Financial Industry including the Bank of England,[2] HM Treasury and various banks and building societies.

Product chronology

  • Moneyfacts Magazine - first published in 1988
  • Business Moneyfacts Magazine - first published in 1994
  • Moneyfacts Datascreen - 1994 to 2012
  • Investment Life & pensions - first published in 1996
  • Moneyfacts.co.uk - launched in 2001
  • Market Intelligence Report – launched 2003
  • Daily News Bulletin – launched 2003
  • eMoneyfacts - Launched in 2004
  • Web services and data feeds – 2005
  • Treasury Reports – launched 2009
  • Star Ratings - 2011 (credit cards)
  • Analyser - launched 2012
  • Executive Reports - 2012

Awards

  • Moneyfacts - 2001
  • Business Moneyfacts - 2002
  • Investment, Life & Pensions Moneyfacts - 2002
  • Consumer Awards - 2009

Activities

Moneyfacts' main activities are:[3]

  • Researching and monitoring personal, business, investment, life and pension financial products that are available in the UK.
  • Publishing three monthly magazines: Moneyfacts, Business Moneyfacts and Investment, Life & Pensions Moneyfacts.[4]
  • Providing financial information through report tools and publications to financial and Government institutions.
  • Hosting Four annual awards[5] - Consumer Moneyfacts Awards, Business Moneyfacts Awards, Moneyfacts Awards, and Investment Life and Pensions Moneyfacts Awards – which establish the best financial products in their sectors. These awards are widely reported in the national and financial press.[6]
  • Annual assessment of a range of financial products in the form of Moneyfacts Annual Star Ratings.
  • Publication of Treasury Reports which provide an in-depth review of the credit card, mortgages, pensions and savings market.
  • Operating the financial price comparison web site moneyfacts.co.uk.[7]
  • Creating and maintaining IT systems to provide up-to-date financial information to various financial institutions in the UK.

Additional activities

  • Moneyfacts provides Best Buy charts to the national and provincial press including Daily Express, Financial Times, Sunday Express, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times and The Times
  • Insight, market commentary and trend analysis with representatives appearing in a range of national and regional media. There are regular appearances on radio and TV, including BBC Breakfast, BBC News 24 and Sky News
  • Moneyfacts is a regular contributor of data and insight to the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report,[8] Trends in Lending and Inflation Reports.

Controversies

In 2004, its rival Moneysupermarket.com paid Moneyfacts £3.9 million in an out of court settlement to settle a dispute of alleged intellectual property theft. At the time, Moneysupermarket was going public at a price between £864 million and £1.05 billion, and it was thought best to resolve the issue beforehand.[9]

In 2007, the "best buy" tables used in the UK press were criticised by Mike Lazenby, the then 'maverick'[10] CEO of the Kent Reliance Building Society, for not reflecting the products which offered the best long-term value, with Moneyfacts bearing the brunt of the criticism. The main objections were:[11]

  • At that time Moneyfacts charged an £11,000 yearly fee to its subscribers, and did not always list non-subscribers in its best buy tables.
  • It was possible for products to boost their position in best buy tables by offering short term introductory bonuses.

The historic issue was that some non-subscribers tended not to volunteer their data within the time required. With the benefit of more widely available digital data, this is no longer an issue. To resolve the issue of product providers manipulating submissions by introductory bonuses, Moneyfacts now produces its tables in versions with and without these bonuses.

Subsequently, in 2013, Moneyfacts were praised in the Sunday Times,[12] which highlighted that Moneyfacts.co.uk always lists the genuine best buy products for its customers regardless of any financial arrangements with product providers, whilst other comparison websites were found to purely recommend financial products on a commercial basis.

References

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