The “buy lists” produced by UK-based investment platforms or fund supermarkets to help guide customer choice attracted considerable attention in 2019, following the decision to suspend dealing in the £3.7 billion LF Woodford Equity Income fund (WEI) and put it into effective lockdown.

Despite a very poor performance over the previous three years WEI had retained a constant presence in the fund buy-lists produced by Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK’s biggest investment platform.

This produced claims about potential conflicts of interest and a blurring of the distinction between “research” and marketin...