(Bloomberg) -- Robinhood Markets Inc. is exploring offering British users the ability to invest in UK stocks as the financial technology giant continues to hunt for growth beyond its home market.
The deliberations come just months after the company rolled out commission free trading for more than 6,000 US-listed stocks to UK customers. The Menlo Park, California-based company is also exploring how it can offer retirement products in the country and plans to debut margin trading in the coming weeks.
“We are looking ahead to multi-currency wallet support and local execution, including the London Stock Exchange,” Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Friday. “There’s been huge demand for options as well — options on US equities — because that’s just hard to come by here in the UK market.”
Robinhood has been seeking to expand into new markets in recent years after trading activity waned following a pandemic-induced boom that had inflated enthusiasm for meme stocks and boosted Robinhood’s revenues. Tenev said the firm has also refocused its US business on areas that produce interest income, like retirement products and credit cards.
Investors have cheered those moves. The company’s stock has risen 76% this year, outpacing the 20% advance of the 138-company Russell 1000 Index Financials.
In the UK, it has entered an increasingly crowded space where companies like Revolut Ltd., eToro Group Ltd., Trading 212 Group Ltd. and Freetrade Ltd. have been looking to make their mark. Some of those firms already offer trading in UK stocks and compete with incumbents like Hargreaves Lansdown Plc, Fidelity Investments and AJ Bell Plc.
Robinhood in the US popularized the model of not charging retail clients fees for their trades and since 2019 most major online brokerages there have followed in the company’s footsteps. After Robinhood’s debut, US households’ investments in equities has risen by 27%, Tenev said, noting that in the UK that measure has held steady.
“Unlike the US, there hasn’t really been a zero commission revolution,” Tenev said. “We are hoping to change that here.”
(Adds share performance in fifth paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected a statistic regarding household investment in equities in penultimate paragraph.)
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