Hargreaves Lansdown has seen its assets under administration rise to £26bn, according to its interim management statement today.

The firm added £2.6bn in assets in the three months to 31 March, an increase of 11 per cent from December.

The firm compared the rise to growth in the FTSE All Share Index which rose only 5.1 per cent.

Net inflows totalled £1bn while investments into Sipps were £1.7bn.

On the firm’s Vantage platform, the number of clients increased from 396,000 in December to 413,500. These clients held 631,000 accounts, up from 608,000.

The number of Sipp accounts increased by 7,000 to 140,000 while the number of Isas increased by 12,000 to 331,000.

Ian Gorham, chief executive of Hargreaves Lansdown, said the company had fared well during a difficult quarter.

He said: “The quarter under review remained a difficult period for the retail investment market. Investor confidence rose slightly but remains comparatively low.

“There remained a significant lack of innovative product or fund launches which are invariably a fillip to business. Despite these conditions the company has fared exceedingly well.”

“There has been much comment about increasing competition but we have not seen any material impact from this. Indeed we have enjoyed substantial inward transfers of both Isa and pension money into our Sipp for the period, assisting us to achieve our excellent level of net business inflows.

“Part withdrawals of money from funds and specifically Isas remain higher than last year (driven by client personal expenditure requirements in tough times) but we have not experienced the outflows that have been reported in other businesses in the sector.”