As the UK’s largest, and one of the financially strongest wealth platforms, we take the security of our clients and their investments very seriously. Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited is part of the HL Group and looks after over £120 billion of assets for over 1.8 million clients (December 2023).
Your investments are protected in two key ways: Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and your cash and investments are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to certain limits.
Money you have in an ISA or a Fund and Share account is held in legally separate trust accounts across a range of UK regulated banks. This means your cash is held separately to HL’s cash and it is reconciled daily. HL is an investment platform and does not trade with or lend your money, unlike banks. You also benefit from Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection (see more on this below).
Investments in your ISA or Fund and Share accounts are held in the name of our nominee company, or by an appropriately authorised third party custodian or nominee. Client investments are held separately from HL’s assets, and reconciliations are carried out on a regular basis. Your investments have trust status which means that in the unlikely event that HL becomes insolvent, the investments are protected from HL’s creditors.
Money and investments you have in pension accounts are held subject to the trust deed and rules of the pension scheme. These are also trust assets so are held separately from HL’s assets, reconciled regularly, and protected in the event of HL’s insolvency.
Additionally, in the extremely unlikely event that the business had to be wound down, HL holds cash in reserve substantially above the amount required by regulation, so we would expect to be able to meet all associated costs. HL held £536 million of cash as at 31 December 2023.
Key protections for private investors
- Hargreaves Lansdown plc is a FTSE-listed company, an index of the biggest listed companies in the UK.
- We look after more than £120 billion of assets on behalf of our clients.
- We place deals only on behalf of our clients, we do not buy and sell investments for our own benefit. This means our business depends solely on the service we provide you and the performance of your investments, not on the success, or otherwise, of any investment decisions we make on our own behalf.
- We are not a bank and so we will not mix your assets with those of other clients or HL and will never trade or lend your money.
- Money held in Active Savings products is deposited with the providers of those savings products. Each of these providers will have their own banking licences and FSCS protection. Visit our FAQs section for more information.
We are regulated by the FCA
Hargreaves Lansdown is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is bound by their rules and regulations in the conduct of our investment business. Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited is authorised by the FCA to hold client money and client assets. Hargreaves Lansdown Fund Managers Limited is authorised by the FCA to manage authorised investment funds (AIFs) and Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS). You can telephone the FCA Consumer Help Line on 0800 111 6768 (8am-6pm Monday to Friday and 9am-1pm Saturday), to check our registration or ask other queries. Alternatively, you may write to them at the Financial Conduct Authority, 12 Endeavour Square, London E20 1JN or you can visit www.fca.org.uk
The FCA’s regulatory framework for governing the amount and nature of capital that investment firms must hold is set out in the FCA Prudential sourcebook for MIFID investment firms. This includes the requirement for publishing annual regulatory disclosures and is directly applicable to Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited.
Our regulatory disclosure is published in the Investor Relations section of the Group’s website at www.hl.co.uk/investor-relations and is also available free of charge on request by writing to Investor Relations, One College Square South, Anchor Road, Bristol, BS1 5HL.
Client money is held on Trust
All client money is held by us on trust and is segregated from our own funds in accordance with the FCA’s client money rules and guidance so that any creditors of Hargreaves Lansdown would have no legal right to it and we cannot use any of this money to cover Hargreaves Lansdown's obligations.
Our policy is to only use institutions with a UK banking licence which are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is backed by the government and protects clients’ deposits up to £85,000 in the unlikely event that a bank, building society or credit union defaults. A client’s individual protection will depend on their aggregate balances held by that institution; further information is available on the FSCS website.
Client money held within the HL service and the Portfolio Management Service is deposited across a panel of institutions with a UK banking licence. Your money in the HL SIPP and PMS SIPP is held in separate SIPP trustee bank accounts which are segregated from other client money held by us.
Client money and your money in the HL SIPP and PMS SIPP is primarily held with the UK clearing banks. The full panel of approved institutions with a UK banking licence, actively holding this money comprises: Bank of Scotland Plc, Barclays Bank Plc, Goldman Sachs International Bank Plc, HSBC Bank Plc, Investec Bank Plc, Lloyds Bank Plc, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets Plc, Santander UK Plc and the UK regulated branches of Qatar National Bank SAQ, Emirates NBD PJSC and Bank of Montreal.
Stocks protected in nominee accounts with you as beneficial owner
Stocks you hold with us are held in the name of or to the order of Hargreaves Lansdown Nominees Limited, or by an approved third party custodian. Hargreaves Lansdown Nominees Limited is a non-trading company so it cannot run up liabilities of its own.
We maintain detailed records of all your investments and assets for which you will at all times remain the beneficial owner. We do not lend stock held in our HL or PMS service.
It is possible to have some of your assets segregated from other clients’ assets, find out more here.
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
Investors are also likely to be covered by the provisions of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) if Hargreaves Lansdown ceases trading. The FSCS can award up to £85,000 in compensation to any one investor where they decide that an investment business is in default and is unable to satisfy any claims against it. In addition, if one of the banks which we use for depositing cash balances is declared in default, each individual is entitled to 100% of the first £85,000 in total in compensation for losses across all their deposits with that institution. Full details of the FSCS detailing the restrictions and financial limits that apply are available on request from the FSCS. You can contact them on 020 7741 4100 or 0800 678 1100 or at www.fscs.org.uk. You can also write to them at FSCS, 10th Floor, Beaufort House, 15 St Botolph Street, London EC3A 7QU.
All Hargreaves Lansdown Group companies are registered in England and Wales and consequently are governed by the Companies Act, which includes a requirement to have the financial accounts audited each year by independent accountants. We currently use the international firm PwC, which is one of the big four chartered accountants in the world and they also perform our regulatory audit.
We want to ensure that everybody who invests with Hargreaves Lansdown is fully informed about the security of the investments they have made and the various protections that are available to them. Please feel free to contact us at any time if you would like to discuss this issue in greater detail.
Hargreaves Lansdown Group comprises the following regulated companies: Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited, Hargreaves Lansdown Advisory Services Limited, Hargreaves Lansdown Savings Limited and Hargreaves Lansdown Fund Managers Limited.
