Regulations benefit boutique managers

Mint, which has about $160 million under management, has recently had two if its funds added to RaboDirect's online offering.

And Thomas said tightened regulation had tipped the scales for many banks considering whether to sell their own in-house product exclusively or outsource to specialist fund managers.

“Banks are looking to avoid a repeat of the product selling scandals which revealed the practice of reputable banks selling their own in house products to their client, products which often did not stack up in terms of performance or product design against more independent, specialist fund managers.”

“One of the biggest issues at the time was that Mum and Dad investors did not understand that banks were regularly selling their own in house products, often under different brand names,” Thomas says.