The brokers at JP Morgan Cazenove will be entering the festive season safe in the knowledge that their firm is still the FTSE 100 favourite, according to data out this morning from Adviser Rankings.
JP Morgan widened the lead ahead of its main competitor, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML), which saw its FTSE 100 client numbers dip to 26 compared to JP Morgan’s 30.
Yet the FTSE 100 king stockbroker is not entirely supreme, as it has failed to grab back the total-stock-market crown which Numis Securities stole in August. JP Morgan Cazenove had previously held this title since Adviser Rankings began collecting data more than 13 years ago, but now lags Numis by five clients.
Read more: Numis reigns victorious as it steals the crown of top City stockbroker from JP Morgan Cazenove
Elsewhere in the FTSE 100 stockbroker rankings, Morgan Stanley & Co and UBS both managed to add one client each allowing them to retain a joint third place. Barclays, which formerly shared the podium with them, slipped to fifth place as it lost a client.
JP Morgan again held the title for the number of FTSE 250 clients, followed by Numis. Investec Securities gained a FTSE 250 client to move into third place, where it stands along with Jefferies Hoare Govett.
In the financial adviser rankings, UBS and Morgan Stanley each gained a client to overtake BoAML – which lost two – in terms of number of FTSE 100 names.
FinnCap headed up the total-stock-market adviser rankings due to its dominance in the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) sphere, followed closely again by Numis.
Read more: Beaufort Securities and WH Ireland move into top five most popular stockbrokers for Aim-listed firms
The slight shifts in client loyalties come ahead of a tough time for brokers, as new regulation in the form of the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid II) approaches.
Mifid II forces brokers to change the way they charge for equity research, so that they must sell it to fund managers rather than “bundling it in” for free along with other services.
As fund managers have revealed they are willing to spend comparatively small amounts on research, brokers have had to consider how they will price their offering to gain a competitive advantage.
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