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Abrdn has called on Britain to make a “big bang” by scrapping stamp duty on shares after figures showed UK retail investment in the stock market is the lowest in the G7.
A fund manager report showed that – excluding pensions – British savers keep just 8 per cent of their wealth in stocks and mutual funds, compared with 33 per cent in the United States.
Britain is also behind the other members of the G7 group of advanced nations: Canada, Italy, France, Japan and Germany.
Xavier Meyer, chief investment officer at Abrdn, said: “When it comes to investing in stocks outside of our pensions, the UK is far behind many developed countries.”
Untapped investment: A report from fund manager Abrdn shows that, excluding pensions, British savers hold just 8% of their wealth in shares and mutual funds.
Increasing the proportion of UK wealth invested in shares to the same level as in the US could inject up to £3.5 trillion into capital markets, Abrdn’s report argues.
Much of that amount could go into London-listed stocks, helping revive the beleaguered market.
The report proposed that the simplest approach would be to remove stamp duty which charges 0.5 per cent on share transactions in the UK.
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