£266m profit from the DIY trading boom

SAVERS have been flocking to Hargreaves Lansdown to boost their nest eggs, taking customer numbers close to 1m as the broker prepares to introduce cash deposit accounts.

Investors pumped £6.9bn into the firm during the year to June 30 – up 15pc on the previous 12 months.

It gained an extra 118,000 clients to bring the total to 954,000, while profits rose 21pc to £265.8m.

Bosses said they had been boosted by an increasingly tough savings environment which pushed families to seek better returns on their cash.

With easy access saving accounts paying an average 0.36pc, the stock market’s record-setting run looks increasingly attractive.

It is prompting customers to dip into trading with a Hargreaves account. Chief executive Chris Hill said: ‘There are considerable challenges for people in the current saving and investment environment but there are also opportunities, and we are ideally placed to help people make their investment decisions with confidence.’

The broker – which announced a dividend of 29p per share, up 20pc on last year – is planning to launch a cash management service called Active Savings by the end of the year, which will directly compete with banks and building societies.

The company is seeking to grow its share of the £2.4 trillion savings and investment market at a time when the Bank of England’s record-low interest rate of 0.25pc means many savers struggle to beat inflation.

Although Hargreaves share trading platform dominates the market, it has faced competition from overseas rivals including US fund manager Vanguard, which has undercut the business on fees.

‘Fundamentally, competition is a good thing – anything which increases investment is a good thing,’ Hill said.