Rathbone Brothers sees 32% drop in commission income in Q1

Amid volatile markets

Wealth manager Rathbone Brothers has seen its commission income fall by 31.9% in the first quarter of the year, while new business inflows were also affected by market volatility.

Commission income fell from £14.4m to £9.8m in the first three months of the year, which the group attributes largely to lower trading volumes and settlement values, as well as a continuing trend towards higher quality fee based income. This drop caused net operating income to be 0.7% lower than in Q1 2015, at £58.9m, despite growth in income from fees, net interest income, and fees from advisory services. Fee income of £37.7m rose 8.3% year-on-year, while net interest income was up 7.7% in the first three months, at £2.8m. Fees from advisory services and other income grew by 10.3%. ...