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Hargreaves Lansdown triples dealing staff to handle Brexit vote demand

* Hires more helpdesk staff, extends opening hours

* Shelves non-essential maintenance plans

* Broker Charles Stanley warns of trading delays (Adds detail, bullet points, Charles Stanley (LSE: CAY.L - news) letter to investors)

By Simon Jessop

LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown (LSE: HL.L - news) has tripled dealing staff numbers, hired more helpdesk personnel and extended opening hours to help clients to navigate the aftermath of Thursday's referendum on European Union membership.

Companies across the financial services industry are keenly awaiting the outcome of the vote early on Friday, with currencies, bonds and equities markets likely to move sharply on the result of the so-called Brexit vote, whichever way it goes.

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"A lot of this is just wait and see, but we've put contingency plans in place; we've got extra people available for dealing and for the helpdesk. We've trebled our capacities," Danny Cox, a spokesman for the FTSE 100 company said.

Cox declined to give precise staff numbers but said the increase is comparable to that undertaken each year around the end of the tax year, when savers rush to take advantage of tax-free investment allowances.

Hargreaves Lansdown has also cancelled all non-essential maintenance work and extended its hours of business for the three working days after the referendum, plus four-and-a-half hours from 0930 BST on Saturday.

"Everybody's expecting to be busy," Cox said

The company has received regular publicity in the run-up to the referendum, given the high-profile role of co-founder Peter Hargreaves in the "Leave" campaign with his millions of pounds in donations.

Retail-focused stockbroker Charles Stanley is also expecting to be busy and told clients on Tuesday that they might face longer waiting times to speak to its Edinburgh-based helpdesk and that some trades may take longer to feed into the market.

In a note on its website, Charles Stanley executive Magnus Wheatley told clients that the firm expects "considerable volumes" to be traded and more market volatility than usual.

"It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) is possible that market-makers will reduce the size of orders that can be placed online and be slow to answer phones," Wheatley wrote. (Editing by Sinead Cruise and David Goodman)