Stale Price Events FAQs

We require fund providers to send us prices every day so that we can price the funds on our platform. We carefully monitor the arrival of fund prices and take active steps to obtain these prices. In some circumstances, fund providers are unable to send us prices for their funds in the agreed timeframe and we have to use the previous day’s prices instead. This results in a ‘stale price event’.

A stale price event can result in a member being better or worse off than they should have been, depending on whether they bought or sold units in the fund on the given date. This discrepancy may then be compounded by any subsequent transactions – for example, if a member switches money into a different fund. We will not take any action if a member benefitted from the stale price event. Any member who does not transact on the date of the stale price will be unaffected.

We will only look into whether members’ accounts need to be corrected if the stale price is 1% higher or lower than the correct price. Following this, and aligning with the industry standard, we will then check if it caused the fund value to be at least 0.5% higher or lower than it should have been.

• For a full-service scheme, we will then correct a member’s account if they have been disadvantaged by more than £5. The industry standard in this type of situation is £10.
• With an investment-only scheme, we will carry out a correction if the effect of the pricing error is more than 0.02% of the value of the plan’s holding in the fund.

No. If a stale price worked in a member’s favour – in other words, if the value of their account was higher than it would have been if we had used the correct price – the member will be able to keep what they have gained.

We initially identify the affected members by reviewing all transactions completed at the stale price. These transactions are then analysed to determine whether any member was disadvantaged by more than the minimum correction value. Following this, we carry out a correction for the initial qualifying transactions, which is a relatively streamlined process. Then, we conduct a further analysis to determine whether any member had carried out a subsequent transaction. If this is the case, we correct each transaction individually, which is a longer process. Once we have corrected a member’s account, we write to them explaining what we have done and assuring them that they have not been financially disadvantaged as a result of the issue. The aim is to ensure that the member is not worse off as a result of the stale price.

We will have sent you an email if your scheme has been impacted by the stale price event and this would have provided a completion date for the initial corrections of impacted member accounts. Further analysis will need to be completed to determine if any account has completed a subsequent transaction and this will take longer to complete. The exact duration will depend on how many subsequent transactions were completed by different members. Once the corrections have been finished, we will write to each member confirming the details of what we have done.

Where we make a correction on a member’s account, the rate of return could be impacted. If we calculate that the discrepancy is going to have a material impact, we will not show a rate of return. Rates of return are calculated over rolling 12-month periods. Once the dates of any corrections on a member’s account are no longer covered by the relevant 12-month period, we will be able to provide a return for their account. However, if the discrepancy is going to be immaterial to the overall return, we will show the calculated figure. This is explained to the member when we inform them of the stale price event.

No. The stated performance of a fund will be correct and any corrections that we need to make on a member’s account will be completed in line with the fund’s actual performance. However, there can occasionally be deviations where a fund manager’s methodology for reporting differs to our correction of the fund and member accounts.

Naturally, we are keen to avoid the confusion and disruption that stale prices cause. As a result, we have extended the deadline for fund managers to send us prices to offset the impact of stale price events. We have also enhanced our bulk correction process to ensure that we can correct members’ accounts more promptly. We are now looking into whether there are any other ways we can minimise the impact of stale prices, and will let you know of any changes to our operational processes in due course.

If any member has been disadvantaged from the stale price event and has since retired, we will send the value of the loss directly to the member. In the situation where a member has transferred their account to another provider, we will communicate with the new provider to send them the value of the loss.