St James’s Place signs up Metro
WEALTH manager St James’s Place will launch a new banking service in conjunction with challenger lender Metro in April, it confirmed yesterday
The FTSE 100 group unveiled the new service as it released full-year results showing a 24 per cent rise in profits up to £173.8m, helping it to hike its full year dividend by 50 per cent.
It had previously said it would increase the pay out by 40 per cent.
The St. James’s Place Money Management Account, as it is known, will offer customers a bank service, including cheques, debit cards, mobile access and a secured overdraft facility to help people access their cash quicker.
“Metro are a conviction business and like us they really do believe in customers satisfaction,” chief executive David Bellamy said.
Funds managed also rose by a fifth, up to £52bn, from the £44.3bn level revealed in a market update to investors in January.
Research analysts Andrew Sinclair and Blair Stewart from Bank of America Merrill Lynch said: “This update reinforces our conviction in the strength of SJP’s business model, which continues to reap the rewards of its customer retention.”
Shares in the group rose 4.3 per cent in trading yesterday to finish at 930p, trading close to its historic high of 948p a share recorded earlier this month.