Salford-based investment platform AJ Bell said its assets under administration (AUA) closed at £83.7 billion for the three months ended June 30, 2024, up 20% over the last year and 4% in the quarter.
In a trading update AJ Bell said customer numbers increased by 25,000 in the quarter to close at 528,000, up 13% in the last year and 5% in the quarter.
AJ Bell CEO Michael Summersgill said the firm is actively engaging with the new UK government on its pledge to support greater retail participation in capital markets and increase the number of people using stocks and shares ISAs.
Gross inflows in the quarter were £3.7 billion (2023: £2.4 billion) and net inflows in the quarter were £1.7 billion (2023: £1.1 billion).
At the AJ Bell Investments unit, assets under management (AUM) increased to £6.3 billion, up 47% over the last year and 9% in the quarter.
Net inflows in the quarter were £0.4 billion, in line with the prior year (2023: £0.4 billion).
AJ Bell shares rose 6%.
CEO Summersgill said: “The third quarter of our financial year saw a continuation of the strong momentum reported in our previous update.
“Our strategy of serving both the advised and D2C markets helped us to attract a significant number of new customers and assets from both sub-sectors of the growing platform market.
“Total platform customers increased by 25,000 in the quarter whilst net inflows were 55% higher than the comparative period at £1.7 billion. This helped to drive platform AUA to a record £83.7 billion, 20% higher than a year ago.
“Our investments business continues to go from strength to strength. Net inflows of £0.4 billion into AJ Bell investment solutions resulted in total AUM surpassing £6 billion for the first time.
“Our ongoing success in this area reflects our approach of offering simple, low-cost, multi-asset solutions which also benefit from our track record of delivering excellent long-term investment performance.
“Recent stock market performance has boosted confidence amongst D2C customers, resulting in higher levels of dealing activity in recent months, with international dealing activity being particularly strong.
“Our ongoing investment in our brand and products, including recent price reductions, has fuelled customer growth with the organic increase in D2C customers in Q3 being more than double the level achieved in the prior year.
“AJ Bell’s purpose is to help people invest. However, many people are put off investing due to a lack of confidence, not helped by the complexity of the UK investments market.
“This has led to a situation where around 3 million people are holding at least £20,000 in their cash ISA but nothing in a stocks and shares ISA, according to HMRC figures. We are actively engaging with the newly-elected government on their pledge to support greater retail participation in capital markets and increase the number of people using stocks and shares ISAs. Having long campaigned for simplification of the ISA system, we have this week put forward proposals to the new Treasury team in which we call for a move to a single ISA wrapper for cash and investments, making it easier for savers to start investing.
“To further help this cohort of potential investors, we recently launched a 5.09% AER interest rate for ISA and Lifetime ISA accounts held on our Dodl investment app, enabling customers to earn an attractive return on their cash whilst at the same time building knowledge until they feel ready to start investing.
“We enter the final quarter of our financial year with strong momentum. Our dual-channel strategy and continued investment into our brand, technology and products puts us in an excellent position to capture further market share gains in both the advised and D2C platform markets.”