Hargreaves Lansdown reports record inflows and says ready for fees

Hargreaves Lansdown has seen net inflows rise by £1.8bn, a record amount for the investment firm in a single quarter.
The firm, which released its results for 1 January- 31 March today, also said it was ready to substitute "competitive" fees for commission charges if asked to do by the regulator when much anticipated changes to the platform sector happen.
It is expected the Financial Conduct Authority will release a paper next week on reforms of the platform sector, dubbed by some as "RDR2.".
Total assets under administration at Hargreaves increased to £35.1bn, up from £26bn in the same period last year.
On the Vantage platform, 30,000 new clients were added bringing the total to 476,000. This compared to 17,500 added during the first quarter of 2012.
Revenue was up 23 per cent from £62m to £76m but the firm said caution was needed regarding areas such as the Eurozone debt which could negatively affect revenues.
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The firm said it was awaiting the FCA paper but that it was "not anticipating any surprises".
Chief executive Ian Gorham said: "After assimilating the forthcoming paper we will run a process to obtain the best possible prices for our clients on suppliers' funds before offering commission-free funds on our Vantage platform.
"Therefore in due course Hargreaves Lansdown will substitute fees to replace commission on funds. We have conducted extensive modelling of our potential fee structure and we feel it will be both competitive and excellent value."
Regarding RDR, the firm said it was "too early to fully quantify" the effect of reduced access to financial advice.
However, it said growth in client numbers and increased volumes of business transfers indicated self-directed investing was being recognised as a "sensible and good value" alternative.

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