- Financial Times
Peel Hunt agrees deal with rivals to launch RetailBook platform
UK broker’s venture with Rothschild, Numis, Hargreaves Lansdown and Jefferies to offer retail investors access to capital raisings
- Financial Times
Hargreaves Lansdown launches digital voting service
Hargreaves Lansdown has launched a digital service to make it easier for customers to cast their votes as shareholders, following moves by its competitors to boost participation among individual investors. “Individual retail investors hold around 15 per cent of UK shares yet their views on company performance, diversity and climate change are still very much overlooked,” said Tom Lee, head of trading proposition at the platform. The system, run by technical services provider Broadridge, eases the voting process for Hargreaves’s 1.7mn customers, who can invest in about 5,800 UK and EU shares on the platform.
- Reuters
Investment platforms face hangover after pandemic party
The trillion-dollar retail investment express is losing steam, dampening the fortunes of British trading platforms that boomed during lockdowns on the back of a meme stocks frenzy. Many stock-pickers are steering clear of a turbulent market as living costs rise and the economy teeters, squeezing the business of consumer investment platforms that are facing falling fees and thinning margins. Even the biggest fish, such as FTSE-listed Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell and those owned or recently acquired by major banks and asset managers, are struggling with wilting flows of new customers and money.
