More than £10,000 was raised in five minutes by deVere Group’s Western Europe consultants and leaders from the wealth management and pensions industries at the weekend for two charities using the deVere Vault app.

The spontaneous fundraiser took place at deVere’s Road to Success conference in the region, which was held this year at the prestigious W Hotel in Barcelona, and attended by double Olympic champion, Dame Kelly Holmes DBE.

James Green, Head of Western Europe for deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial services organisations, says: “Two incredible, life-enhancing charities will directly benefit from the generosity of our talented teams from across the region and from our guests, including managers from GAM and Sovereign.

“Scope, a charity which works to ensure that disabled people have the same opportunities as everyone else, and You Shake We Shake, a new organisation to raise funds for epilepsy research, will each receive half of what was raised.”

He continues: “We asked the 130 delegates at the conference to dig deep -and that they certainly did. I’m proud that we raised so much in under five minutes and thank all of those who contributed.

“The pledges were made using deVere Vault, deVere E-Money’s global e-money app.  Everyone in the room has a Vault account and they made their donations directly and instantaneously into the charity Vault account.  Payments from Vault to Vault are instant, free and real-time notifications are given – it’s the simplest, quickest and cheapest way to transfer money anywhere.”

For his part, Andrew Oliver, Senior Area Manager of Central Europe, comments : “We were delighted to welcome double gold Olympic champion, Dame Kelly Holmes to the conference.  We were especially touched that she chose to join us following the death of her beloved mother only a few days before.  Clearly moved, she started her talk with the message: ‘The show must go on.”

“Everyone in the room was utterly captivated as she spoke of not only her amazing sporting achievements but also her many challenges – both professional and personal – that she has overcome.

“Drawing continual parallels between athletics, and sport in general, with the world of financial services, her overriding theme was that anything can be achieved with the right attitude, skillset, and dedication.

“She’s got to the very top of her game with true grit, pure integrity and 100 per cent commitment.  And for those of us in the financial services industry, where there is endless potential, if we also adopt Dame Kelly’s approach we will unquestionably be on the Road to Success.”