Savers snub stocks and funds amid turbulence

Britain’s biggest investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown earned huge interest from holding clients’ cash in the final six months of last year.

It comes as the platform revealed savers are steering clear of funds and shares amid the market turmoil with customers preferring to leave cash in their Hargreaves accounts.

The company holds cash accounts with a number of banks that pay interest on them.

Earning interest: Hargreaves Lansdown revealed savers are steering clear of funds and shares amid the market turmoil with customers preferring to leave cash in their Hargreaves accounts

A portion of this interest is passed back to its clients, but a significant chunk is taken by the firm.

As a result it made revenues of £121.6million on cash accounts in the last six months of 2022, compared with just £11.3million for the same period in 2021.

This huge surge helped Hargreaves make total revenues of £350million, a rise of 20 per cent, and above analysts’ expectations of £325million.

Profit also jumped by 31 per cent to £197.6million. 

But total assets under administration fell 10 per cent, reflecting steep falls in equity and bond markets, and sat at £127.1billion at the end of 2022.

Chris Hill, chief executive, said: ‘It’s important that we are working with clients to understand what it is that they need at particular times in the cycle and, clearly, with low consumer confidence and low investor confidence, people have been really focused on cash.’

But one top-ten shareholder was worried by the company’s reliance on interest income, saying: ‘All trading is down: stockbroking, new business. 

Interest on money, which is out of their control, is over half the profit.’