Platforms must cut prices further to lure Hargreaves' clients - Barclays

D2C platforms attempting to undercut Hargreaves Lansdown via lower fees have not made "significant enough" reductions to lure clients away, analysts at Barclays have said.

The entire platform market saw a hive of activity at the start of 2014, in particular in the D2C space where many providers moved to undercut the market leader amid the shift to the new rebate-free world. In the key battleground of sub-£250k clients - which make up the majority of most platforms' users - Hargreaves' 0.45% annual charge was bettered by peers including Bestinvest, Fidelity and Barclays Stockbrokers, with fees ranging between 0.35% and 0.4%. But in a recent note, analysts at Barclays said they are unconvinced competitors have reduced prices by enough to really challenge ...