Yahoo Finance Hargreaves Lansdown reaps benefits after Barclays glitch
Bristol-based investment shop Hargreaves Lansdown is still luring in angry Barclays' customers impacted by the banking giant's botched switchover last summer.
The FTSE 100 broker told investors on Tuesday that it added 60,000 new clients and £3.3bn worth of new business to its books in the year to April 30. It said this was partly due to a continuation "albeit on a reduced scale, of transfers from a competitor platform".
A source said that the unnamed rival is Barclays’ Stockbroker service, which faced a slew of investor complaints last year following a technical glitch after it moved customers to a new service called Smart Investor.
The issue forced some to jump to rivals, with Hargreaves Lansdown citing "significant" levels of transfers to its business in the second half of last year.
As well as still taking in customers from Barclays, the company said it was also boosted by an increase in marketing, as well as some customer transfers from Old Mutual, which stopped offering Isa services in February.
Sweeping up more savers helped Hargreaves Lansdown increase its revenues for the period by 15pc compared to this time last year, to £150.6m.
The business poured money into technology investments last year, launching a mobile app and an online cash management service as well as building out a team of technology specialists in Warsaw, Poland.
Chief executive Chris Hill said this, along with recent investments in its helpdesk and operations teams, helped it cope with stronger volumes of activity in recent months. He said further investments in technology were "crucial" going forward.
Shares in the business inched up on the update and were quoted at £18.94 in early afternoon trade.
