Barclays turmoil is boost to Hargreaves

CUSTOMERS flocked to Hargreaves Lansdown after a crisis at a rival platform run by Barclays.

The share trading firm’s profits jumped to £146.9m in the final six months of last year, up 12pc on the same period in 2016.

It was boosted by a botched IT upgrade at competitor Barclays Smart Investor, which switched to a system that annoyed many clients and triggered teething problems including delays paying out dividends. Thousands of customers fled to Hargreaves, helping it pick up 61,000 clients and taking the number of active traders above 1m for the first time.

It looked after £86.1bn of savers’ money at the end of the year, a rise of 9pc. And its interim dividend was hiked 17pc to 10.1p per share.

Chief executive Chris Hill did not mention Barclays, but did admit the business was boosted by trouble elsewhere. ‘Operational issues on a competitor platform resulted in significant levels of transfer activity across the period,’ he said.