Robinhood hopes for third time lucky in the UK with high interest offers and 24-hour a day trading
Robinhood, the trading app that took the United States by storm during the pandemic lockdowns, is having another go at cracking the UK market.
The company, a key beneficiary of the craze in so-called “meme” stocks which took hold in 2020 and 2021, first announced plans for a UK launch in 2020.
On that occasion, having opened a waiting list for would-be clients in 2019 that reportedly attracted 300,000 potential customers, it shelved plans in order to concentrate on its home US market following an explosion of interest there.
More recently, in August last year, it sought to buy Ziglu, a UK-based cryptocurrency trading app, for $170m only for the deal to fall through.
It will now be hoping that it is third time lucky.
A compelling offer in a competitive market
The offer for would-be customers is pretty compelling but, with the likes of Freetrade, eToro, Trading 212 and Revolut all now offering commission-free share trading, it needs to be.
Robinhood is offering commission-free trading of more than 6,000 US-listed stocks and ADRs (American Depository Receipts) with no foreign exchange fees and customers will be able to trade around the clock and out of hours.
Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s co-founder and chief executive, points out that, during the recent turmoil at OpenAI, a lot of customers and market participants had been tweeting screenshots from Robinhood of the share price of Microsoft – a major investor in the AI business and which offered its ousted (and later reinstated) chief executive, Sam Altman, a job almost immediately.
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Vladimir Tenev said that, over time, the ability to trade UK and European stocks on the Robinhood would grow.
He told Sky News: “We are offering those US stocks 24 hours a day, five days a week through our 24 hour market, we became the first major broker in the US to offer round the clock trading of individual named stocks.
“That’s a capability that you won’t find elsewhere.”
He said that, over time, the ability to trade UK and European stocks on the platform would become available.
But perhaps the kicker is that the business will be offering customers an interest rate of 5% on any uninvested cash in their brokerage account.
That is something Mr Tenev clearly hopes will lure customers away not only from commission-free trading rivals – most of whom are relative upstarts in the industry – but also some sector’s established big guns such as Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell and Interactive Investor, which is owned by the fund manager Abrdn.
It is also worth noting that Robinhood only offers an interest rate of that magnitude to its premium customers in the US.
The big profit question
One big question here is how Robinhood will be able to offer a proposition like this to UK customers and remain profitable.
In the US, it can offer commission-free trading by accepting payments from market-makers – the market professionals who quote two-way prices at which they will either buy or sell a security – to execute the trades made by its customers.
But this practice, known as “payment for order flow”, is not allowed in the UK.
Mr Tenev’s response is that payment for order flow now only accounts for a small portion of Robinhood’s revenues in the US – perhaps because some US regulators have been pondering about the desirability of the practice.
He said: “If you look at Robinhood’s business, actually, in the past couple of quarters, we’ve diversified it tremendously.
“More than half of our revenue comes from net interest. And that’s through a number of offerings, we collect a small spread on the cash, even though we do offer 5% interest.
“We offer stock lending, which shares interest generated by stocks, customers are holding in their account with customers, but also generates revenue for the firm. So we’ve continued to diversify. And equity is payment for order flow, which you mentioned, is right around 5% of our revenue.
“And we’ve been growing our revenues. So what we aim to do is, again, offer the best economics to our customers and make it clear to customers that they’re getting an unbelievable value proposition and experience with Robinhood.
“But of course, the business is sustainable. And we might operate at thinner margins than the incumbents. But the business still makes money. We’ve demonstrated that and we’re continuing to diversify it over time.”
Will the UK be enthusiastic about stock trading?
Another big question is whether the UK will ever be as enthusiastic about stock trading as in the US.
Even there, transaction volumes have slipped in recent months as Americans have returned to the office, sporting events – a rival attraction for those interested in punting rather than investing – have resumed and the savings built up by households during the lockdowns have been run down.
If Robinhood can get Britons buying shares actively again, it will be thanked by Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, who recently announced plans for a possible offer of the government’s remaining shares in NatWest with the words “it’s time to get Sid investing again”, a reference to the successful “Tell Sid” advertising campaign in 1986 that persuaded more than 1.5 million people to invest in shares of British Gas when it was privatised by Margaret Thatcher’s government.
Robinhood has been criticised in the US for encouraging the “gamification” of trading. The criticism reached a peak after a 20-year old Robinhood customer killed himself in June 2020 after running up losses of $750,000 on the options market.
Mr Tenev insists Robinhood has learned from the experience. The app now includes many more educational resources aimed at helping clients invest more knowledgably and to make more informed decisions.
Regulators will be watching closely, though, to ensure that investors are not being encouraged to take reckless risks.
Some of the biggest US technology companies have pledged billions of pounds of investment to turbocharge Britain’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, as the two countries announce a landmark technology deal.
Nvidia, Microsoft, Open AI and Google made a flurry of announcements to coincide with President Trump‘s state visit to the UK.
They include plans to build data centres and invest in AI research and engineering.
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Sir Keir Starmer described the agreement, which both leaders will sign over the coming days, as “a generational step change” in Britain’s relationship with the US.
The deal will see both countries cooperate on AI, quantum computing and nuclear energy, with investment in modular reactors revealed earlier this week.
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The prime minister said it was “shaping the futures of millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic, and delivering growth, security and opportunity up and down the country”.
The government said the deal would deliver thousands of jobs, with a new AI Growth Zone in the North East of England earmarked for 5,000 jobs.
The region will host a new data centre developed in partnership with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, the US chip giant Nvidia and the British data centre company Nscale. The UK government will supply energy for the project, which will be based in Blyth.
Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, who has previously drawn attention to Britain’s inadequate levels of digital infrastructure, said: “Today marks a historic chapter in US-United Kingdom technology collaboration.
“We are at the Big Bang of the AI era – and the United Kingdom stands in a Goldilocks position, where world-class talent, research and industry converge.”
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang. Pic: Reuters
The Blyth data centre is part of Stargate, Open AI’s infrastructure project to build large data centres across the US.
The company has also developed sites in Norway and the UAE. Nvidia, which provides the graphic processing chips (GPUs), expects to generate $20bn (£14.6bn) by the end of this year from “sovereign” deals with national governments over the coming years.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said: “The UK has been a longstanding pioneer of AI, and is now home to world-class researchers, millions of ChatGPT users and a government that quickly recognised the potential of this technology.
“Stargate UK builds on this foundation to help accelerate scientific breakthroughs, improve productivity, and drive economic growth.”
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Microsoft also pledged £22bn, its largest ever investment in the UK, to expand data centres and construct the country’s largest AI supercomputer.
Meanwhile, Google owner Alphabet pledged £5bn to expand its data centres in Hertfordshire and fund its London-based subsidiary DeepMind, which uses AI to power cutting edge scientific research. The company was founded in Britain and acquired by Google in 2014.
Other investments include £1.5bn from AI cloud computing company CoreWeave and £1.4bn from Salesforce.
There are “no discussions around taxpayers’ money” to prop up Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) suppliers, according to the prime minister’s official spokesman, as the carmaker grapples a lengthening production shutdown following last month’s cyber attack.
JLR factories fell silent more than two weeks ago. While it is damaging for the company, it represents a perilous loss of business for the supply chain which has also been forced to send workers home.
Some have already lost their jobs.
Unions and the business and trade committee of MPs were among those to request the possibility of aid to prevent job losses and employers going bust as the disruption drags on.
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What happened?
It was revealed on 1 September that global production at JLR had been stopped following a cyber attack.
IT systems were taken offline by the company under efforts to limit penetration and damage.
The company appeared confident initially that manufacturing could resume but restart dates have been consistently put back.
What damage was done?
Jaguar Land Rover has said very little about the extent of the attack.
But it admitted last week that some data had been accessed. It gave no further details.
Who is to blame?
A criminal investigation is continuing.
A group of English-speaking hackers claimed responsibility for the JLR attack via a Telegram platform called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, an amalgamation of the names of hacking groups Scattered Spider, Lapsus$ and ShinyHunters.
Scattered Spider, a loose group of relatively young hackers, were behind the Co-Op, Harrods and M&S attacks earlier in the year.
It is widely believed that M&S paid a sum to regain control of its systems after it was targeted with ransomware though it has refused to confirm if this was the case.
How is this affecting JLR as a business?
The business was highly profitable last year but 2025 has seen new trade war challenges in addition to the cyber attack: File pic: Reuters
JLR typically produces about 1,000 vehicles a day.
Production staff are being paid but kept away from plants at Halewood on Merseyside, Solihull in the West Midlands, and its engine factory in Wolverhampton. It is the same story for workers at sites in Slovakia, China and India.
JLR revealed on Tuesday that production lines would now remain shut until at least 24 September.
David Bailey, professor of business economics at the Birmingham Business School, told the PA news agency: “The value of cars usually made at the sites means that around £1.7bn worth of vehicles will not have been produced, and I’d estimate that would have an initial impact of around £120m on profits.”
JLR achieved a pre-tax profit of £2.5bn for the financial year ending 31 March 2025, so should be able to absorb such a hit.
Sales and service operations continue as normal at its retail partners but the longer the disruption goes on, so do the risks to its inventories and bottom line.
Why does its supply chain need help?
JLR’s supply chain includes everything from components to paint. Pic: Reuters
This is the part of the operation that was always bound to suffer most in the event of a global JLR production shutdown.
No manufacturing means no need for parts.
The company usually depends on a ‘just in time’ supply chain to feed its factories and keep production lines running smoothly.
The Unite union has appealed for a COVID-style furlough scheme to prevent job losses and the risk of affected companies, often small or medium-sized firms, being forced out of business.
JLR’s operations are understood to directly support more than 100,000 jobs in the UK though that sum doubles through indirect roles.
The loss of any major supplier would risk further production delays once JLR’s IT systems are back online.
It is currently understood that the vast majority of directly affected workers remain in their jobs but have either been sent home or are on restricted tasks.
JLR suppliers Evtec, WHS Plastics, SurTec and OPmobility have had to temporarily lay off roughly 6,000 staff while a growing number of other firms are cutting workers, with temporary or contracted workers most likely to be affected.
What has the government said?
In addition to the remarks by the PM’s official spokesman, minister for industry Chris McDonald told Sky News: “We know this is a worrying time for those affected by this incident and our cyber experts are supporting JLR to help them resolve this issue as quickly as possible.
“I met the company today to discuss their plans to resolve this issue and get production started again, and we continue to discuss the impact on the supply chain.”
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