Barclays global edges closer to retail market; Vanguard could face challenge down the road.

Investment News, March, 2001 by Southall, Brooke

The world's largest investor of pension funds has launched a web-based service for small institutional clients that could serve as a test run for a move into the retail market.

If it strikes off in that direction, Barclays Global Investors, the institutional money manager of London-based Barclays PLC, could pose a rare challenge to the Vanguard Group's stranglehold on funds that have deeply discounted management fees, according to pension fund and financial advisory consultants.

"The industry has arbitrarily delivered itself as retail and institutional," says Stephen C. Winks, former head of investment management consulting for Prudential Securities and publisher of the Senior Consultant in Richmond, Va. "But the truth is, there's no difference....

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