Platform provider, HUB24 has defended itself against media reports that in the wake of interest rate cuts the fees it charges for cash on its platforms risked leaving planning clients facing negative net returns on their cash.
In doing so, it claimed the fee examples used in the report were not representative of the administration fees paid and interest rates received by the majority of clients and claimed that an analyst cited in the newspaper report was just one voice in the sector.
In an announcement released to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) following a trading halt, HUB24 said it maintained flexible fee arrangements with licensees for their clients and that the fee example reference in the Australian Financial Review article was “not representative of the administration fees paid and interest rates received for the majority of our clients”.
The platform provider said its cash account was a working transaction account that facilitated the comprehensive capabilities that supported the broad range of services provided to clients of the platform, for example investment trading, portfolio rebalancing and pension payments.
“The platform provides a variety of additional cash investment options including term deposits, cash ETFs and cash management funds for advisers and clients seeking cash risk/return exposure,” it said. “The cash transaction account is not the sole cash investment option available.”
The HUB24 announcement said the platform administration fee related to the platform services provided to customers and were independent of the rates of return or performance of individual assets and investment options available on the platform.
“The HUB24 cash ‘transaction’ account offers a competitive rate when compared to peers and when compared to similar bank products, which do not provide the same level of capability provided by the platform,” it said.
“All clients of HUB24 are receiving a positive interest rate on their cash account, post yesterday’s Reserve Bank of Australia rate change.”
