Hargreaves Lansdown has launched a tirade against the Financial Services Compensation Scheme after its bill more than doubled in the past year.
In a trading statement released today (20 May) on the London Stock Exchange, Hargreaves said it estimated its FSCS levy would be £4.6m for 2015, up from £2.1m in 2014.
In response, the firm said: “It is extremely frustrating that shareholders must bear such costs with the current FSCS system placing an unfair burden on reputable and blameless firms.”
However, the firm should be able to absorb the cost of the increased levy, having recorded an increase in its net revenues to £241m in the first 10 months of its financial year, up from £239.3m for the same period in 2014.
The small rise came even though the firm registered net inflows of £5bn in that period, including £2.75bn in the four months to April 30 2015, a record for the first four months of the year.
Hargreaves said the main headwinds preventing better revenue growth were “lower interest rate margins compared to 2014 and the comparative effect of lower prices introduced on March 1 2014”.
