UK financial advisors and other intermediaries say they would recommend more offshore funds to clients if they were available through supermarket platforms, according to research commissioned by HSBC Investments, part of UK bank HSBC. The research found that 84 per cent of survey respondents would do more business with offshore funds if they could access them easily via this route. The study was carried out by Citywire among 50 intermediaries. “By focusing on UK-domiciled funds, platforms are offering access to a good range of UK equity funds, and a limited choice of specialist funds such as those available in emerging markets or alternative asset classes,” Andy Clark, managing director, wholesale, at HSBC Investments, said in a report. “Much of the innovation in mutual funds is not readily available in the UK. The rest of the world is gaining access to global fund ranges, but the UK is behind because UK investors find these difficult to access,” he said. Supermarkets face administrative issues with including offshore funds on their platforms, such as the difficulty of pricing funds that are based in different time zones, the report said. However, another reason cited by supermarkets for not including offshore funds is a lack of demand from intermediaries, a point proven wrong by this research. The research found that 92 per cent of interviewees currently use offshore funds, citing tax efficiency, client requests, and the availability to diversify assets as the major reasons. However, offshore funds still make up just 11 per cent of interviewees’ current investments. A further finding of the research revealed that 54 per cent of intermediaries expected they would do more business in offshore funds in five years.