One-third of trading on Robinhood’s UK app takes place outside of market hours, according to Robinhood’s UK boss, who says he is “happy” with the response following its launch but declined to divulge customer numbers.
US fintech Robinhood, famed for disrupting the wealth management industry with its commission-free trading, launched fully in the UK in March this year, marking Robinhood's first overseas market.
The US fintech is now over 10 years old and boasts over 20 million customers and has expanded into areas such as credit cards, retirement and other products.
In this interview, Jordan Sinclair, Robinhood UK president, talks about his background; how he is enjoying his role; and his relationship with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev.
On Robinhood UK’s customer numbers, Sinclair said:
“We've continued to grow and we've been really, really happy with the response we've got from customers.
"And we've had roughly a third of notional trading happening outside of market hours.
"So that really is demonstrating to us that the customers are looking to trade on their own schedule, which is fantastic to be able to kind of innovate and do something different."
As in the US, the UK Robinhood app offers 24-hour trading five days a week, allowing trading outside of market hours.
In April this year, figures showed that Robinhood’s UK app was gaining users, but had only over half the estimated downloads of established rival Hargreaves Lansdown in February and March this year.
Sinclair added: “We're building a long-term profitable business and we've demonstrated that in the US and that's our goal ultimately in the UK too.”
On criticism that Robinhood has gamified investment, Sinclair said: "We almost take issue with the fact that one would describe it as gamifying because it's a customer's long-term savings that is important to the customer."
The CEO also touched upon the resurgence of the meme stock frenzy and Robinhood’s recent $200m purchase of global crypto exchange Bitstamp.
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