The Investment Management Taskforce, which looks to bring together policymakers and investment industry executives to drive growth and competitiveness in the UK economy, has launched.

The first meeting has taken place between senior policymakers at the Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), alongside industry executives and the Investment Association, to look at how the industry could support growth.

It is chaired by Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Lucy Rigby, with the FCA represented by interim executive director for markets, Simon Walls.

Representatives from asset and wealth managers also sit on the taskforce, with figures from Aberdeen, BlackRock, Blackstone, Fidelity International, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Jupiter Asset Management, L&G, M&G Investments, Royal London Asset Management, Schroders, St. James’s Place, State Street Investment Management, and Vanguard included.

The taskforce has been designed to foster collaboration between the government, regulator, and industry, looking at progress made against the government’s Financial Services Competitiveness and Growth Strategy and focusing on encouraging retail investment across the UK.

It will oversee workstreams to drive progress in what have been identified as the most crucial areas.

The first of these will be looking at the opportunities offered by technology, with Vanguard head of Europe, Jon Cleborne, to act as chair.

This workstream will progress the fund tokenisation work completed by the previous incarnation of the taskforce, with the aim of making the UK the global digital investment centre.

“I am very pleased to launch the Investment Management Taskforce with industry leaders, the FCA and the Investment Association,” commented Rigby.

“This is about unlocking the next wave of growth: using the UK’s strength in investment management to get more capital into productive assets, boost retail investment, and keep the UK as one of the best places in the world to invest and do business.”

Investment Association chief executive, Chris Cummings, added: “The taskforce is a signal of the importance that this government places on our industry and our role in their wider economic agenda.

“With a dedicated technology workstream, the taskforce will accelerate progress in an area where the UK has a genuine opportunity to lead internationally by developing a worldclass digital ecosystem.”

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