Barclays to rival Hargreaves by combining banking and investment arms

New platform called Barclays Direct Investing

Barclays is to combine its banking and investment management divisions into a new platform in an attempt to bridge the growing advice gap.

The combined service will be a low-cost online investment platform and look to rival Hargreaves Lansdown, the largest D2C investment platform in the UK. The platform, called Barclays Direct Investing, will allow customers to manage savings, current accounts and investments in one place. It will also have a list of 50 funds which have achieved a certain level of performance, similar to the Hargreaves Lansdown Wealth 150 list. Customer fees for holding funds will be 0.2% a year, while other investments will cost 0.1%. Online transaction costs will be £3 for funds and £6 for all other in...