Funding platform and SIPP supplier AJ Bell has reported pre-tax revenue up a modest 6% yr on yr to £58.4m for the yr ended 30 September.

Buyer numbers rose strongly, rising by 57,687 to 425,652 and the corporate expects additional progress.

Income was up 12% to £163.8m (FY21: £145.8m).

The corporate stated its monetary efficiency over the previous 12 months had been “robust.”

Throughout the yr it invested in its new on-line choices Dodl and Contact and minimize funding costs.

Regardless of the expansion in income, platform inflows dropped by £1.2bn to £5.8bn (FY21: £7.0 bn) and platform Property Below Administration ended the yr at £64.1bn, a drop of two% as robust web inflows had been hit by antagonistic market actions of 11%.

AJ Bell CEO Michael Summersgill stated: “2022 has been one other profitable yr for AJ Bell. Our trusted, dual-channel platform, serving each the suggested and D2C markets, drove natural buyer progress of 16% to over 425,000 and delivered £5.8 billion of web inflows throughout the platform.

“Our buyer retention price additionally remained extraordinarily excessive at 95.5%, evidencing the standard of our propositions and the robust service ranges we offer to our prospects. 

“Our worthwhile, sustainable enterprise mannequin and robust monetary place has supported continued funding in our buyer propositions and our individuals while enabling us to once more improve our bizarre dividend to shareholders. The board has proposed a remaining dividend of 4.59 pence per share, rising the overall bizarre dividend for the yr by 6% to 7.37 pence per share.”

Wanting forward, Mr Summersgill stated that whereas market volatility was more likely to persist within the short-term, structural progress drivers for the UK funding platform market “stay robust” and AJ Bell had important progress alternatives.

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