Moneyfacts

Moneyfacts Group PLC is a financial information company founded in 1988^[1] based in Norwich in the United Kingdom employing over 100 people.^[2]

History

Moneyfacts was founded in 1988 by current Chairman John Woods. It was first launched as a six page monthly fact sheet about personal finance products. This expanded to become a range of three magazines (covering personal and business financial products as well as investment, life and pensions products), a price comparison website, mortgage, savings and unsecured lending treasury reports and IT systems. The brand has grown rapidly and is now known throughout the UK as an independent and unbiased source of financial information.

Product Chronology

Moneyfacts Magazine - first published in 1988; Business Moneyfacts Magazine - first published in 1994; Investment Life & pensions - first published in 1996; Moneyfacts.co.uk - launched in 2000; eMoneyfacts - launched in 2004; Moneyfacts Data Screen - launched in 2005.

Current activities

Moneyfacts' main activities are:^[3]

• Independently researching and monitoring thousands of personal, business, investment life and pensions financial products that are available in the UK.
• Providing independent financial information and a subscription data service to financial institutions, the media and Government in the UK. This includes the production of Best Buy tables for personal finance products.
• Publishing three monthly magazines: Moneyfacts, Business Moneyfacts and Investment, Life & Pensions Moneyfacts.^[4] Each magazine issues annual awards^[5] for the best financial products within its area. These awards are widely reported in the national and financial press.^[6]
• Operating the financial price comparison web site moneyfacts.co.uk.^[7] since 2000.^[8]
• Building and maintaining IT systems, which provide up-to-date financial information to banks and building societies in the UK, as well as intermediaries, the media and Government.

Additional Activities

• Moneyfacts’ data powers over half the UK's financial comparison websites, whilst the group also designs and hosts sites for respected organisations like Which?

• Moneyfacts’ market commentary and insight regularly appears within national newspapers and Moneyfacts representatives appear, on amongst others, BBC Breakfast, BBC News 24, and Sky News.

• Moneyfacts’ data and insight is used by the HM Treasury, the Office of Fair Trading and the United Kingdom Parliament.

• Moneyfacts is a regular contributor of data and insight to the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report, Trends in Lending and Inflation Reports.

• The European Commission has used Moneyfacts’ data and research in its report on the costs and benefits of integration of European Union mortgage markets and also used Moneyfacts’ Best Buys as its industry benchmark of excellence in the restructuring plan of Northern Rock.

• The Moneyfacts Mortgage Treasury Report combines past and present market data to provide an in-depth review of the mortgage market.

• The Moneyfacts Savings Treasury Report provides a monthly overview of the savings and investment market.

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][10] +

In 2007, the "best buy" tables used in the UK press were criticised by Mike Lazenby, the then 'maverick'(^[11]) 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:^[12] + - *At that time Moneyfacts charged a £11,000 yearly fee to its subscribers, and did not always list non-subscribers in its best buy tables. This is no longer the case. - *It was possible for products to boost their position in best buy tables by offering short term introductory bonuses. This is no longer the case.

Remedy; A historic issue was that some non-subscribers tended not to volunteer their data within the time frame required. Today, with the benefit of more widely available digital data, Moneyfacts no longer excludes any non-subcribers from its Best Buy tables. If they are the best in class, they will appear. 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(^[13]) 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