Edinburgh fintech Nucleus Financial sees assets break £15bn
AUA continued to rise at the Edinburgh-headquartered fintech in the three months to 30 June, climbing 6.9 per cent year-on-year and 3.9 per cent from the previous quarter to £15.3bn.
Nucleus, which provides so-called wrap platforms for financial advisers, contrasted its growth with the FTSE All-Share Index, which fell by 3.5 per cent year-on-year and increased 2 per cent over the quarter.
Gross inflows rose for the second consecutive quarter, however net flows continued to fall, decreasing from £134 million to £111m. This marks a year-on-year drop of more than 64 per cent compared with the same period in 2018, when net flows stood at £315m.
The fintech attributed this to higher outflows from "a small number of firms that have been acquired by consolidators".
Advisers actively using the platform increased to 1,383, up 1.9 per cent year-on-year.
Nucleus also said it had continued to invest in its core platform, boosting its pensions and drawdown offerings as well as switching its stockbroking service to lower costs.
David Ferguson, Nucleus founder and chief executive, said the results were “pleasing against a backdrop of unsettled market conditions driven by ongoing political and economic uncertainty, which is likely to continue into Q3".
He added: "The change to our technology model in November 2018 increased our change velocity. In Q2 we have delivered a substantially improved pensions and drawdown capability, alongside a new stockbroking service that brings significantly reduced trading costs for clients, and completed our Mifid II regulatory costs and charges disclosure.
"Having delivered a number of propositional changes in the first half of the year, we intend to continue to build on this momentum with a series of further enhancements that will improve service delivery and operational resilience.”