Barclays’ strife helps Hargreaves Lansdown trading

Strife at Barclays and the Brexit vote are driving new clients to Hargreaves Lansdown.

The broker and fund-seller said today it won 30,000 new clients and £1.54 billion of new money in the three months to September.

The firm said: “We also benefited from significant transfer activity relating to operational issues on a competitor platform, showing the benefit of our strong reputation for client service.”

It didn’t name the competitor, but it is thought to be Barclays Stockbrokers, which has suffered various glitches over the summer. Barclays ran into trouble as it tried to switch customers to a new service called Smart Investor. Some clients were left waiting for dividend payments.

Others complained that they couldn’t get access to their account and couldn’t get through to a call centre for help. Barclays apologised.

Hargreaves said assets under administration stood at £82 billion on 30 September, an increase of 4% since June 30.

The company had net revenue of £101.4 million in the year to date, up 15% on the £90.5 million reported this time last year.

Chris Hill, chief executive, said: “I’m pleased to report a solid start to the new financial year for net new business and revenue.”

Hargreaves said the Brexit vote has prompted a surge of trading by retail punters. Co-founder Peter Hargreaves, who donated £3.2 million to the Leave.EU campaign, has described the vote as “like Dunkirk”.

Stephen Lansdown, the company’s other founder, sold £188 million of Hargreaves shares late last month.