22nd Nov 2019 11:19
(Alliance News) - Hargreaves Lansdown PLC is struggling with a backlog of requests from customers trying to transfer assets out, due to the fallout from Neil Woodford's now-closed fund, the Financial Times reported Friday.
According to the newspaper, three of Hargreaves' rivals - Interactive Investor, London-listed AJ Bell PLC, and Bestinvest - have said wait times for customers transferring investments to their platforms from Hargreaves has dramatically increased since the summer.
The paper said some cases are taking six weeks longer than usual, with a Hagreaves source telling the FT it had a backlog dating back to the end of August, leaving affected customers waiting for more than a month before their requests were even looked at.
In response, Hargreaves said that it did not have a backlog across the board, but that there had been a few cases where there are specific complexities which have delayed transfer times. It added that it had not experienced an increase in customers requesting to switch over the past six months.
https://www.ft.com/content/d89c9c44-0bb2-11ea-bb52-34c8d9dc6d84
At the beginning of June, Woodford suspended withdrawals from his equity income fund due to "an increased level of redemptions", with the fund needing time to "reposition" its portfolio invested in unquoted and less liquid stocks into more liquid investments.
Hargreaves was caught up in the saga as Woodford's funds were a mainstay on the fund supermarket's best fund lists. It took the decision to waive its platform fee where clients directly held this fund, with this loss of revenue estimated at GBP360,000 per month.
That may not have been enough to placate some of its customers.
Shares in Hargreaves were 0.9% higher in London on Friday at 1,773.00 pence each.
By Paul McGowan; [email protected]
Copyright 2019 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Hargreaves Lansdown