Independent wrap platform Investment Funds Direct Limited, part of the Royal London group, is to put its consumer platform Fundsdirect up for sale.

The firm said the fund supermarket is not seen as core to its ongoing business strategy of providing investment administration services to intermediaries.

It added that it would remove any potential conflicts of interest from running consumer propositions involving the same target audience.

The service was launched in 1999 as the UK’s first online fund supermarket and currently has 2,000 customers with around £23 million ($35.3 million) of assets under administration.

IFDL is seeking a purchaser of the Fundsdirect assets together with the client base.

The group said it is also currently developing a service that will allow intermediaries to offer their own non-advised platform.

“Fundsdirect participates in the D2C market which is expected to benefit hugely from Retail Distribution Review but it is ultimately at odds with our ongoing strategy, which is to focus on intermediaries. Obviously we would expect to continue to administer the assets and products for the new owner. Research suggests that there will be strong consumer demand for access to direct platforms, giving a new entrant a great springboard for growth in this market,” said Hugo Thorman, managing director at IFDL.