Finance
AJ Bell warns of moderating revenue margins, added costs from ISA reforms
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on December 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on December 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
AJ Bell warns of moderating revenue margins and increased costs due to ISA reforms, impacting the investment process and shares.
By Simone Lobo
Dec 4 (Reuters) - Investment platform AJ Bell on Thursday warned of added costs from Britain's Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) reforms and said its fiscal 2026 revenue margin would moderate after increased forex dealings this year, sending shares down 7%.
Its stock declined on the dim outlook even as the company reported a 22% rise in annual profit before tax and announced a 50 million pounds share buyback.
AJ Bell CEO Michael Summersgill told Reuters that the UK's ISA reforms are likely to drive up complexity and costs associated with the investment process.
Finance minister Rachel Reeves, in her November budget, announced a set of reforms to the ISA market in a bid to revive investment in Britain's sluggish stock market.
These reforms included cuts to the annual cash investments investors under 65 could save tax-free and charges on cash held in Stocks & Shares ISAs.
"I've never seen a more complex and misguided set of interventions into the ISA market. None of these things will help to achieve the stated aim, but they will add cost and complexity for providers and for customers," said Summersgill.
AJ Bell, which provides Stocks and Shares ISAs, noted that the reforms brought on additional requirements for ISA providers, such as age verification and checking the details of the product, which in turn could increase costs.
($1 = 0.7500 pounds)
(Reporting by Simone Lobo in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Janane Venkatraman)
An Individual Savings Account (ISA) is a tax-free savings account available to residents in the UK, allowing individuals to save or invest money without paying tax on the interest or capital gains.
Forex trading involves buying and selling currencies in the foreign exchange market. It is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world.
A share buyback occurs when a company purchases its own shares from the marketplace, reducing the number of outstanding shares and often increasing the value of remaining shares.
Profit before tax is the income a company earns before accounting for income tax expenses. It is an important measure of a company's financial performance.
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