Financial Planning app Multiply has gained FCA approval and claims to be the first such UK service to get the green light from the regulator. 

The firm says the development “tears down the barriers preventing people accessing free, impartial advice and creates the first real chance to tackle - at scale - Britain’s financial advice gap, where 16m people are priced out of financial advice”.
 
Multiply, which already has thousands of self-employed customers, will launch its enhanced, fully regulated service in Summer 2019 to the mass market.
 
The technology aims to allow users to build a financial plan in just 15 minutes.
 
To achieve FCA approval, Multiply says its technology had to undergo “stringent testing processes”.

The testing evidenced the technology was advanced enough to make complicated calculations of an individual’s situation and deliver suitable recommendations tailored to that person.
 
Multiply has tested 300 different scenarios and used “external industry specialists and Paraplanners” to check and verify the results of the technology.
 
Multiply will be available to all, for free, from Summer 2019 across iOS.
 
Vivek Madlani, co-founder and CEO of Multiply, “We’re immensely proud to be the first company to receive FCA approval to automate the full advice process.

“At the moment the industry is going backward, the advice gap is widening.

“People are ready for Multiply; a free digital-first approach.

“We want to put the power of a personal financial advisor in everyone’s pocket to help Brits access the advice they need to do the stuff that really matters to them - buying a home, saving for retirement, starting a family.
 
“It is extremely encouraging to see the FCA advice unit actively supporting ideas like ours.

“Their commitment to bringing innovative firms to market that will benefit consumers will see big societal issues like the advice gap tackled, and hopefully solved, sooner rather than later.”