Nucleus has removed the last of the exit fees on James Hay's platform as it takes advantage of its increasing scale.
The platform will also begin to pay interest on transactional cash balances from July, and the cash panel available for longer-term cash investments will be “significantly extended”.
The company will be extending an approach by Nucleus Wrap, where a treasury team manages pooled cash across nine banks to maximise returns and keep core charges as low as possible.
Although the rate passed on to customers of the James Hay platform will vary, the company expects the initial rate to be around 1.5 per cent.
Customers who leave cash on the platform for longer will result in better interest rate offerings as a result of a new partnership between Nucleus and Bondsmith.
The minimum deposit level has been dropped from £25,000 to £1,000.
Finally, the last remaining exit fees on the platform will be removed. They include:
- Transfer out charge to UK or overseas scheme
- Account closure charge
- Annuity purchase charge
- Modular Isa/Gia transfer out charge
Alex Kovach, chief commercial officer at Nucleus, said while the company is busy developing its new platform, it is keen to use its new scale to invest in its existing platform products, the service provided and the price customers pay.
“We believe we’ve got the balance right between offering an attractive rate of return on the short-term transactional cash account, whilst providing greater investment choice and flexibility for those seeking higher returns over longer periods of time.
“The removal of the final remaining exit fees from James Hay Online is an important step in our reforms.
“We don’t believe any customer should face unreasonable barriers to exit if they wish to leave, for whatever reason.”
James Hay bought Nucleus in February 2021, in a deal worth nearly £145mn.
sally.hickey@ft.com
