Robinhood made its U.K. debut Tuesday, bringing the U.S. stock market across the pond.
With the development, Robinhood makes good on a goal it’s floated for four years to bring its trading services to the U.K.
The app set up a waitlist for U.K. traders in November, with more users slowly gaining access until its full launch this week.
“We’ve been actively gathering feedback and engaging with customers since our waitlist launch at the end of last year, and have been so encouraged by the reception we’ve received thus far,” Jordan Sinclair, president of Robinhood UK, said in a prepared statement. “Today’s general availability marks the start of a new chapter for Robinhood, and we’re excited to continue challenging the status quo by delivering more local products and services that resonate with our customers and meet their needs.”
With the launch, U.K. traders can use Robinhood to trade without foreign exchange fees or account minimums, with access to trading outside of market hours. Roughly one-third of trading volume has occurred outside of market hours, the company said.
Additionally, uninvested cash can fetch traders a 5% annual equivalent rate, the company said.
To attract traders, Robinhood is offering fractional share rewards between $7 and $175 to new sign-ups and to those who refer friends and family.
Since November, 70% of trades have been for fractional shares, which “provide customers greater access to highly valued equities, providing greater flexibility for their portfolios,” the company said Tuesday.
Something missing from the launch, however, is margin investing, a form of trading where customers borrow money to implement larger trades.
Robinhood UK’s website Monday said the firm charges 12% interest on loans, which it could offer because it had a “regulatory exemption” from having to evaluate customers for whether margin investing was appropriate for them, Reuters reported. However, the page was no longer available by Monday evening.
“Margin investing is paused as we continue to discuss with the regulator,” a spokesperson for Robinhood told Reuters. The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority declined to comment to the wire service.
The launch, originally slated for 2020, was indefinitely postponed that year following technical issues.
“We’ve come to recognise that our efforts are currently best spent on strengthening our core business in the US and making further investments in our foundational systems,” the company wrote to prospective customers at the time.
JMP analyst Devin Ryan told Benzinga the U.K. launch now presents three opportunities for Robinhood: gaining market share, attracting new investors including first-timers, and being a steppingstone for further global expansion.
Sinclair has experience with the latter. He joined Robinhood from Freetrade, a U.K.-based stock-trading app that he pushed into its first international market, Sweden, in 2022.
