AJ Bell has reached record assets under administration in its 2021 full year results hitting £72.8bn as it announces a new chief finance officer amid a period of senior staff change at the platform.
Over the period ended 30 September 2021, the platform saw net inflows of £6.4bn with total customer numbers up by 87,449 to 382,754. Its customer retention rate was 95%.
Chief executive Andy Bell (pictured) said increasing numbers of people began investing for the first time during the pandemic. As a result, AJ Bell sees increasing demand for simplified, app-based investment propositions in both the D2C and advised markets, Bell said.
This week, the platform announced it was launching the Dodl app for the D2C market, which will have no commission on buying and selling investments and an annual platform charge of 0.15%. It will offer investors 50 stocks and 25 funds to invest in.
Additionally, AJ Bell is launching a mobile-led investment platform for advisers called Touch that will enable them to offer an entirely digital service to clients.
Both apps are set to launch in 2022.
See also: AJ Bell launches investing app at a third of the price of Hargreaves Lansdown
Elevated customer dealing activity and improved investor sentiment
Chief executive Andy Bell said the business enjoyed a favourable impact on recurring ad valorem revenue thanks to a “marked improvement” in investor sentiment and asset prices recovering close to or exceeding pre-pandemic highs. The UK lockdown during the 2020/21 winter also led to elevated customer dealing activity in funds and shares and therefore a “significant” increase in transactional revenue during the first half of the financial year, Bell said.
This was partially offset by the reduced rate earned on customer cash balances due to the UK base interest rate remaining at a historic low throughout the year. Additionally, the easing of lockdown restrictions meant customers gradually returned to a normalised pattern of dealing activity in the second half of the year.
The lifting of lockdown restrictions meant AJ Bell was able to resume its On the Road seminars in October and Investival, its investment conference for UK advisers. Nevertheless, the platform is continuing to provide monthly On the Road webinars following positive feedback from advisers.
AJ Bell has established a new hybrid working model that will come into effect for its staff from January 2022. “As well as providing health and wellbeing benefits to our staff, it will also enable us to utilise our current office space more efficiently, creating new areas for collaboration and ensuring colleagues remain connected,” Bell said.
Avoiding a repeat of November 2020 trading disruption
AJ Bell is investing been investing in technology to avoid a repeat of the operational issues it faced on 9 November 2020, when a spike in customer activity following the US presidential election resulted in disruption for its users. Hargreaves Lansdown was also affected.
“We welcome and wholeheartedly support the FCA’s new rules and guidance around operational resilience which come into force on 31 March 2022 that will ensure firms are better able to prevent, adapt to, respond to, recover from and learn from operational disruptions,” Bell said.
“At AJ Bell, we are proud of our reputation as a high-quality service provider, and we will continue to invest in our staff, training and technology to ensure that we can continue to provide a high-quality service to our customers.”
In July, the Financial Conduct Authority sent platforms a Dear CEO letter, urging the sector to invest in their systems to ensure that they keep pace with the growth of their business and remain fit for purpose.
The platform continues to transition to a hybrid cloud-based technology framework. “Our ongoing investment in the infrastructure is to ensure our platform is scalable for growth in the business and resilient in customer activity spikes,” he said.
See also: Hargreaves and AJ Bell platform outages spark platform capacity concerns
Peter Birch becomes latest senior appointment
In tandem with the results, AJ Bell announced the appointment of Peter Birch as chief financial officer, effective from July 2022.
Birch joins from Deloitte, where he is a financial services audit and assurance partner, after joining the firm in 1999. He has been the partner on Deloitte’s assurance engagements with AJ Bell since 2015.
He replaces Michael Summersgill, who became deputy chief executive in October, but will continue to undertake CFO duties until Birch joins.
“I have followed the progress of AJ Bell for many years and have always been impressed by its strong culture and customer focus which has enabled it to grow into one of the UK’s leading investment platforms,” Birch said in a regulatory filing announcing his appointment.
The hire comes amid plenty of change amid AJ Bell’s senior ranks.
The results are the last under chairman Les Platts, who joined the board in 2008. Platts will be replaced by Helena Morrissey in January 2022.
Additionally, a number of employees and new hires were promoted to the executive board in recent months.\
In September, Karen Goodman joined as chief risk officer and also becomes part of the executive management board.
Former group finance director Roger Stott was appointed to the newly-created role of chief operating officer (COO) in October after 13 years at AJ Bell. Additionally, AJ Bell Investments managing director Kevin Doran joined the executive management board, alongside HR director Liz Carrington and AJ Bell Investcentre managing director Billy McKay.
McKay replaces Fergus Lyons, who retired as AJ Bell Investcentre at the end of September after 21 years with the business. Lyons will continue to work with the company on the launch of the Touch app.
See also: AJ Bell judged better cultural fit for Helena Morrissey as she exits SJP after short stint
