OCF (ongoing charges figure)

The ongoing charges figure (OCF) is the name used in the UK for the ongoing charges a fund discloses in its KIID or KID. It expresses the cost of running the fund over the previous year as a percentage of average net assets: the management fee, depositary and custody fees, administration, audit, regulatory fees and, for funds of funds, the ongoing charges of the underlying funds.

The OCF deliberately leaves things out. Entry and exit charges, performance fees and portfolio transaction costs are disclosed separately, so the OCF is a measure of the fund's fixed running cost rather than the total cost of ownership.

Why it matters

The OCF is the number most investors and platforms use to compare share classes of the same fund, or similar funds from different houses. Because it is charged every year regardless of performance, a difference of a few tenths of a percent compounds noticeably over a long holding period. It is also the figure regulators expect to be shown prominently, which is why factsheets, KIDs and product pages all repeat it.

In the API

FundFacts API returns the headline ongoing cost the fund house publishes, whether it is labelled OCF, ongoing charges or TER, in headlineMetrics.ter as a percentage.

json
{
  "headlineMetrics": {
    "ter": 0.2,
    "aum": 75000000000
  }
}

Example values. See TER and ongoing charges for how the three labels relate.

Common pitfalls

• OCF and TER are often used interchangeably in practice; when they differ it is usually because one figure is estimated for a new share class and the other is based on actual expenses.
• The OCF excludes transaction costs. Under PRIIPs those appear in a separate line of the KID cost table.