Rathbones Group H1 2026 Earnings Report

Rathbones Group EPS Results

• Actual EPS: GBX 88.50
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Rathbones Group Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Rathbones Group Announcement Details

• Quarter: H1 2026
• Date: 7/29/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 5:00AM ET

With roots dating back to 1742, Rathbones is one of the UK’s leading providers of investment and wealth management services for private clients (individuals and families), charities, trustees and professional partners. Rathbones’ purpose is to help more people invest their money well, so they can live well. Rathbones has been trusted for generations to manage, preserve and grow clients’ wealth and services include discretionary investment management, fund management, tax planning, trust and company management, financial advice and banking services. Rathbones also supports financial advisers with investment solutions, funds and portfolio services – helping them deliver positive outcomes for their clients. Following its transformative merger with Investec Wealth & Investment (IW&I) in 2023, Rathbones now manages £120.7 billion of client assets (as of 30 June 2026), of which £16.3 billion is managed by its asset management arm, Rathbones Asset Management Limited. Rathbones Group (LON:RAT) employs over 3,300 professionals in 21 offices across the UK and the Channel Islands, connecting its clients with high-quality, personalised wealth management services.

Rathbones Group H1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: First-half performance improved across key measures: FUMA rose 10.7% year over year to £120.7 billion, operating income increased 8.6% to £487.5 million, and underlying profit before tax grew 14.4% to £123.2 million. The operating margin expanded to 25.3%, while the interim dividend increased 3.2%.
• Positive Sentiment: Wealth-management flows improved materially, moving to a £450 million net inflow in the second quarter and neutral flows for the first half. Excluding tax-driven and execution-only outflows, underlying wealth-management flows were approximately £500 million positive, supported by higher gross inflows and growth in financial-planning relationships.
• Negative Sentiment: The regulatory Skilled Person Review remains a significant cost and execution risk, with total incremental costs estimated at £60 million and around 4,700 enhanced-due-diligence clients subject to restrictions. Management reported no material client outflows attributable to the review and expects remediation work for restricted clients to be completed by year-end, but insurance does not cover all potential fee repayments or fines.
• Negative Sentiment: The cessation of fees on portfolio cash will reduce the wealth-management fee margin by roughly 1.5 basis points in the second half and prompted a revision of the fourth-quarter operating-margin target to 28.7% from 30%. Management expects technology savings and efficiency initiatives to offset part of the pressure, but not during 2026.
• Neutral Sentiment: Asset management continues to face difficult conditions for active U.K. managers and recorded weaker flows, although management remains committed to its quality-and-value investment style. Rathbones plans to add selected strategies and pursue institutional opportunities while emphasizing patience until investment performance improves.

Presentation

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on what I know is a particularly busy results day. Before I hand over to Iain to present the financial results, I wanted to provide a very brief overview of the first half. It's been a demanding period, but I think we've also begun to show what Rathbones is capable of. We're making very pleasing progress against the strategy that we set out in February.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

The energy in the business has shifted, perhaps more pace, action, and decisiveness, and momentum as a result. The regulatory program we announced in June will reinforce the delivery of our strategy, making Rathbones simpler, stronger, and better equipped for long-term growth. I'll provide an update on our regulatory program, and we'll take you through some of the progress we're making against our strategic priorities later. First, let me hand you over to Iain, who will present the financial results.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Thank you, Jon, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with covering the financial highlights for the first half of 2026. Our first half results show growth across all key measures, starting with funds under management and advice, or FUMA, which stood at GBP 120.7 billion at the 30th of June. That's an increase of 10.7% year-on-year and an increase of 4.4%, or GBP 5.1 billion, since the beginning of 2026. Operating income grew by 8.6% to GBP 487.5 million, which reflects growth across the principal income streams of fees, commission, and advice. Underlying profit before tax grew by 14.4% to GBP 123.2 million, reflecting both the higher income levels and our continued cost discipline, the combination of which resulted in a 1.3 percentage point improvement in the operating margin to 25.3%.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

On a statutory basis, profit before tax grew by 15.7% to GBP 72.1 million, reflecting the improved underlying performance of the business, which has more than offset the increase in non-underlying costs as we begin to recognize the costs relating to the Skilled Person Review. Underlying basic earnings per share increased by 17.1% to GBP 0.885 per share, reflecting underlying earnings growth and supported by our capital discipline with our two share buybacks completed during the period. Our progressive dividend policy remains unchanged, and we have announced today an interim dividend of GBP 0.32 per share, representing progression of 3.2% relative to the 2025 interim dividend, with this increase underpinned by our earnings growth. We'll now look at the principal movements in underlying PBT year-on-year and their impact on the margin.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Business performance reflected the full benefit, from the beginning of 2026, of the GBP 76 million of synergy delivery, which we completed last year. This added just under GBP 17 million to PBT for the half-year relative to the benefit that synergies brought to the first half of 2025. Fee income benefited from higher FUMA, albeit tempered slightly by the effect of the tiering of fee rates as portfolio values increased. Commission income has benefited from the level of transaction volumes in the first half of 2026. Whilst we expected to see some reduction in volumes relative to the buoyant levels we saw in 2025, market conditions have so far remained supportive of volumes and income. Advice income remains a key strategic focus for us and has delivered growth of 11.7% in the first half.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Net interest income saw some downward pressure as a result of the average base rate being lower in the first half of 2026 than the prior year, which affected the income generated on the firm's cash. This was offset by the benefit of the full run rate of interest income synergies in the first half of 2026, which left net interest income relatively unchanged overall. Year-over-year cost movements relating to the impact of salary and general inflation, the increase in investment to support our implementation of Salesforce, along with the investment in our wider technology and change capacity, are all in line with the guidance I gave with our 2025 full-year results in February. Looking now at our flows position for the half year, starting with a quarterly view of net flows.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Whilst we reported net outflows of GBP 845 million for the group overall for the first quarter, net inflows improved significantly in the second quarter, with net flows for the group reducing to an almost neutral position of GBP 31 million of outflow in the second quarter. This improvement was driven by the Wealth Management segment, which reported net inflows of GBP 450 million in the second quarter. This improved performance reflected the benefit of both reduced outflows and improving new business inflows. Importantly, the improvement related to our discretionary and managed services, which represent our higher-yielding propositions. For the asset management segment, the picture was more consistent across the two quarters, reflecting the tough environment that continues for active U.K. asset managers. This remained most apparent across the single strategy funds.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

The net flows position for multi-asset funds, which provide the investment solution for certain propositions of the Wealth Management business, fared better. Looking now at our FUMA and flows for the half year in total, the group saw net outflows for the first half overall of GBP 0.9 billion. This compares to net outflows of GBP 1 billion for the first half of 2025. With net outflows for the Wealth Management segment being neutral for the first half overall, reflecting that improvement in the flows in the second quarter, which I've just spoken about.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

We reported with our first quarter trading update that we had seen an increase in tax-driven outflows of GBP 0.2 billion relating to capital gains that were crystallized ahead of the government's October 2024 budget. After excluding that short-term increase, along with flows relating to execution-only portfolios or mandates, which are inherently more volatile and relatively low yielding.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

The underlying net flows position of the Wealth Management segment for the half year shows a net inflow of half a billion pounds. We'll now look at the breakdown of income for the group. The first half saw significant growth across all key income lines. Fees for the first quarter were impacted by the fall in the markets as the U.S.-Iran conflict took hold but recovered in the second quarter as asset values returned to growth.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Both commission and advice income grew, as I referred to earlier. Net interest and other income should be viewed together. Interest which Investec Wealth & Investment generated under its client money model, up to the point clients migrated onto the Rathbones platform in 2025, has been recognized on the net interest line in 2026. Asset management fees also grew as the effect of net outflows was offset by market-driven growth in assets under management.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Looking now at our income margins, which are calculated based on the average gross FUMA of the relevant segment. Starting in the top left of the slide, the Wealth Management segment saw a reduction in its fee income margin of 1.7 basis points from 59 to 57.3 basis points. The majority of that reduction accounted for 1 basis point of the 1.7 total, reflects the effect of our tiered fee structure.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

As portfolio values rise, a greater portion of a portfolio's value falls into the lowest fee tier, which reduces the average margin. Of the remaining 0.7 basis points, half relates to temporary factors that we expect to reverse over time, and the other half relates to the difference in fee rates applicable to new FUMA relative to the fee rates that apply to FUMA that has flowed out during the period.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Moving to the top right of the slide, commission income saw an increase in its margin. As commission income is driven by transaction volumes, the margin, which is calculated relative to FUMA, is inherently more variable. The increase in the margin reflects the market conditions remaining supportive of volumes and income levels. The asset management fee income margin in the bottom left of the slide is affected by the mix of funds but has remained broadly consistent relative to the prior year.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

The net interest income margin was underpinned by the margin on client deposits being maintained despite last year's base rate reductions. The increase also reflects the short-term benefit of our treasury investments when the base rate falls, as the gross interest we receive on these investments is not immediately impacted by reductions in the base rate. Turning now to non-underlying costs.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

In addition to continuing amortization costs, IW&I integration costs have reduced in line with our guidance and comprise mainly the runoff of the cost of deferred remuneration, which is spread over the vesting period, which will end in 2027. Costs relating to the Skilled Person Review represent the portion of the total estimated incremental cost of GBP 60 million, which has been incurred or more importantly, committed to during the period.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Looking now at our capital allocation. We've maintained our disciplined approach to capital allocation and completed the share buyback program, which we extended earlier this year, which resulted in the purchase of over 3.5 million shares or some 3.3% of the shares in issue. The group's regulatory capital position remains strong with a total capital ratio of 18.3% at the 30th of June, which translates into a surplus of GBP 166 million over the minimum regulatory requirement.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

When we announced the Skilled Person Review in June and the expected incremental cost of GBP 60 million, we confirmed that our progressive dividend policy remained unchanged. That reflected both the strength of our capital base and the highly capital generative nature of the business. The rate at which the group generates capital has increased from the beginning of 2026, being the first full year following completion of the integration in which profit is benefiting fully from the GBP 76 million of synergy delivery, which we completed last year. Integration costs have been reduced significantly. The slide shows that based on the current 2026 profit consensus and our guidance on non-underlying costs, statutory profit before tax continues to increase in 2026, despite the costs relating to the Skilled Person Review being incurred.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Our current expectation is that the actions relating to the Skilled Person Review will be completed without any impact on our existing capital base. As we look towards the second half of 2026, investment management fees will be impacted by the cessation of charges applying to the cash element of portfolios, which we announced in June. Prior to taking that change into account, we would have expected the Wealth Management fee margin in the second half to have remained consistent with the first half.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

However, the cessation of fees applying to cash will reduce the fee margin by around one and a half basis points. There will also be some impact on fees from the voluntary pause on the onboarding of clients who require enhanced due diligence and accepting new funds from those clients who also require enhanced due diligence, which we quantified in our announcement in June.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Our ongoing implementation of Salesforce as our new client relationship management system is expected to go live around the end of the third quarter. The completion of that investment will result in technology costs for this being some GBP 6 million lower in the second half overall, with this reduction benefiting the fourth quarter. We referenced at the year-end that we expected to achieve cost efficiencies through continuous improvement.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

We anticipate these efficiencies will become apparent in the second half, which will support the achievement of our margin target. We reiterated with our 2025 year-end results that we continue to expect to achieve the 30% margin target in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to FUMA increasing by 3% over the course of the year, a stable inflationary environment, and interest rates remaining in line with market expectations as they prevailed at that time.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Since then, we have incurred the significant additional headwind of the cessation of fees applying to cash in portfolios. Whilst we will look to mitigate that impact appropriately over time, we don't expect that to be achieved this year. That headwind will therefore reduce our second-half margin by 1.3 percentage points relative to where it otherwise would have been. Consequently, we've revised our Q4 margin target from 30% to 28.7%. The group does remain on track to achieve the revised target for the fourth quarter, subject to the FUMA inflation and base rate conditions that I stated previously. With that, I will hand over to Jon. Thank you.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Okay. Thank you, Iain. In February, I set out our ambition to be the best wealth manager in the U.K. by far. Before I go into the progress that we're making against that ambition, I'm going to start with an update on the regulatory program. Since our announcement on the 16th of June, our priority has been to mobilize the program that we agreed with the FCA while continuing to support clients and colleagues. We're approaching this work with rigor, urgency, and transparency, and we've made really good progress over the last six weeks. The early indicators are encouraging. Client reaction has been supportive. Commercial activity has remained stable. We've identified no material client outflows attributable to the program.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Similarly, with respect to colleagues, we've seen no departures attributable to the announcement to date, with H1 voluntary attrition of about 3% overall and 2% in the front office, both within normal historical experience. Good progress has also been made in implementing the program itself. We've agreed a revised client risk methodology with the Skilled Person, KPMG, which underpins our enhanced due diligence process. We've started the file review pilot phase, which we expect to complete by the end of August. Once that is complete, we will proceed with the remediation of the approximately 4,700 EDD clients currently subject to restrictions. We expect to have completed the review work for the restricted clients by the end of the year and resume business with them as soon as practicable as we work through the list.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

We've also agreed on the methodology for the targeted client review and will shortly commence the initial sample review of outcomes. The expected financial impact of the program remains in line with that announced on the 16th of June. This slide shows the vision and strategy that we set out in February, which is built around four priorities, being the first choice for clients, the first choice for talent, the most effective operator, and the most reputable brand. They cover the things that really matter in this business, the quality of our client proposition, the strength of our people, how effectively we operate, and the reputation that we earn over time. They're also measurable. In February, we said we would track progress against key benchmarks so that you could see whether the strategy was taking root.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Today is our first opportunity to show that progress, albeit at an early stage. Starting with clients. Our ambition is to deliver better outcomes through a world-class investment capability, advice and solutions honed for the entire client life cycle, and a more personalized and effortless client experience. Robert Sears joined as Chief Investment Officer in March and has already begun a comprehensive review of our investment proposition and operating model. We've approved a new investment governance structure, which will reduce the number of investment committees by around 75%, simplifying and speeding up decision-making, improving accountability, and most importantly, enabling us to express real conviction more clearly in our investment process. Meanwhile, our set of capabilities are being enhanced with the launch of an investment grade and private market strategies in H2. We've also continued to enhance value for clients.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

During the period, we progressed negotiations with third-party fund managers, achieving on average a reduction of one-third of the cost in underlying OCFs on external managers' funds. Financial planning remains one of the clearest growth opportunities in the business. Clients who use both investment management and financial planning continue to exhibit stronger growth characteristics, with net inflows recorded every month across all regions during the half, delivering 4% annualized growth in assets compared with neutral flows across wealth overall. There's been a 3% increase in the number of financial planning clients during H1, and income from financial planning is up about 3% ahead of what the market has otherwise delivered. We continued to progress a more integrated Wealth Management model during the first half.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

By bringing together investment management and financial planning expertise, we can provide a more joined-up service, make better use of specialist expertise, and support more clients with their financial needs as they evolve at different points in their lives. We've also enhanced our proposition through a new life insurance panel, improved collaboration between our marketing and distribution teams for more effective campaigns, and rolled out a refreshed wealth pitch pack for advisors to create a more consistent experience for prospects.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

With regard to the client experience, MyRathbones continues to develop really well. Registrations now exceed 60,000 users, monthly usage continues to grow, and satisfaction remains high. We've delivered more than 30 platform enhancements alongside new client-facing features during the period as well. We'll continue to enhance that experience through MyRathbones with new ISA subscription and tax allowance tracking, richer performance reporting, and data visualization.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Taken together, these initiatives are strengthening our investment propositioning, broadening access to advice, and improving the client experience, altogether supporting better outcomes for clients. This slide shows how we're measuring our progress. In Wealth Management, we're tracking performance versus the ARC benchmark over three and five years, and in asset management, we're tracking the proportion of assets that outperform their benchmark or objective over one and three years.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

We've reported outperformance in both Wealth Management and asset management. 0.3% annualized over three years and 0.2% over five years outperformance for Wealth Management. In asset management, 71% of AUM outperformed its benchmark over one year, showing encouraging improvement. Over three years, that percentage is lower at 62%, and that primarily reflects the impact of an underweight in a number of key technology stocks. Financial planning penetration remains at 14% by funds under management.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Under the bonnet, we've developed more of a reflex to combine financial planning and investment management in pitching for clients. As mentioned, income from financial planning is up ahead of market movements. Flows from clients with financial planning were positive, and the number of financial planning clients increased, but it'll take time to nudge this penetration rate. The final metric on this slide is our Trustpilot rating, which has improved to the top score of five out of five, which we think is a strong indicator of the quality of service that our teams are delivering. The client story is one of solid progress, but also clear opportunity. We're strengthening the foundations, and now we need to keep converting that into better outcomes, deeper relationships, and stronger flows.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

The second priority is being the first choice for talent. That matters because exceptional client outcomes start with exceptional people. In February, we highlighted that we wanted to create a great culture, provide motivating incentives, and use AI-powered tools and processes to make it easier for colleagues to do business. In the first half, we strengthened our leadership capability with some 75 people from around the business completing a leadership development program in conjunction with Hult Ashridge.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

We also established three new colleague forums to give employees a stronger voice in shaping the business. We've completed the design phase of the Rathbones Institute. We've appointed its head, Alex Leonard. We've established a partnership with a leading learning and development firm to support a scalable digital learning platform. The Institute is going to broaden our talent pipeline and empower our people with world-class skills, knowledge, and confidence.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Regarding incentives, we introduced the vastly simplified and more transparent remuneration framework for colleagues in our front office teams. We put in place the Rathbones Growth Unit for colleagues in enablement functions to encourage growth and benefit from it. We've also begun to improve transparency around career progression through a stronger career framework and clear development pathways. As far as processes are concerned, we continue to remove a huge number of friction points across the business. AI, of course, is also a driver with Copilot rolled out across the business and adoption strong, as I will come on to describe. We're already seeing the benefits. In marketing, for example, the use of AI has reduced campaign delivery time from more than six weeks to approximately two weeks.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

AI capabilities were deployed across suitability processes, file reviews, and call transcription. We also expanded our use of AI to improve software development and project delivery to support data analytics to make information more readily available to colleagues and to review client-facing content more efficiently. We now want to move from adoption to measurable outcomes, embedding AI into workflows where it can improve productivity, consistency, and control, enhance the colleague experience, and deliver better client outcomes. Our efforts to simplify processes and to adopt AI-enabled tools that improve colleague efficiency, reduce burden of administration, and support better decision-making have all started to make doing business a little bit easier at Rathbones. There is clearly much, much further to go on this front. The early progress is evident.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

This is about giving our people better tools, faster access to the information they need, and more time ultimately to focus on clients. The measures on this slide are encouraging. Employee advocacy, which is based on a simple question, how likely is it you would recommend Rathbones as a place to work, has improved a little bit from last year's 6.8 to 7.0 out of 10 in the first half. Retention of high-performing and high-potential colleagues remains above our target of 95%. Usage of enterprise-approved AI tools has increased from 22,000 hours a month in February to more than 56,000 hours a month in June, which is an increase of over 150%. That matters because the first step in our AI strategy is just to build the reflex to use it before moving from adoption to measurable outcomes.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

For a business the size of Rathbones, this places us amongst the stronger adopters category of AI, or at least according to ChatGPT itself. What matters is not just the adoption rate, but the persistence of that adoption. 90% of licensed Copilot users were active during the last 28 days, and nearly half of them, 46%, use Copilot more than three days a week. The business with engaged people, clearer incentives, and better tools will serve clients better, execute faster, and adapt more effectively. The third priority is becoming the most effective operator, and for us, that means data-led commercial excellence, simplified operations, and capital efficiency. With regards to commercial excellence, we've now established a single wealth pipeline reporting framework, including assets at risk, bringing together opportunities from across the business into one view for the first time.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

This has been fully adopted across our investment management teams, resulting in much improved visibility of future business activity and strengthened forecast capability. We've also expanded the CUBS initiative, which now includes some 100 practitioners. It's generated almost 8,000 client and prospect interactions, 1,700 meetings, around GBP 200 million of assets won during the period, and a GBP 1 billion, actually a little more, of pipeline. That is a good example of the behavioral shift that we're trying to create, a more disciplined outreach effort, better use of data, and a clearer focus on growth. It's early days, but it's been a fun and productive exercise and one which we are now looking to scale. Alongside this, we took a more coordinated approach to business development, bringing distribution, investment management, and marketing together around priority client segments.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

During the period, we undertook a structured outreach program targeting business owners and professional services partners. This has strengthened engagement with key introducer communities, improving opportunity generation and supporting more effective collaboration amongst colleagues. In the second half of the year, we'll focus on increasing automation, enhancing the quality and predictive value of management information, and strengthening our ability to identify assets at risk earlier. With respect to simplifying operations, we completed a time and motion review across wealth. You haven't lived until you've gone through that. Establishing the first baseline of advisor client-facing activity. What we mean by client-facing activity is all forms of client communication, be that in person, email, or telephone calls, as well as prospect suitability, business development, and pitches.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

That time and motion review showed advisors currently spend around half of their time on client-facing activity and highlighted certain opportunities to standardize, simplify, and automate admin processes, reduce duplication, and increase time available for client-facing activities. Our move from InvestCloud to Salesforce will help address some of these admin processes and remains on track for launch by the end of Q3.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

It's going to help simplify and standardize client service, improve straight-through processing, create a single client view, and strengthen controls around suitability and know your client requirements. On capital, as Iain said, our priorities are clear: to keep a strong balance sheet, invest selectively in long-term growth, maintain a progressive dividend policy, and return surplus capital where appropriate. In that context, we're developing and implementing a much more rigorous framework for allocating capital between different potential uses, whether in marketing, business development, hiring, or so forth.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Here, the direction of travel is also encouraging. Wealth Management moved to neutral flows for the first half compared with net outflows in the prior period, importantly, produced net inflows in the second quarter. It's pleasing to see that gross inflows have been higher now for the third consecutive quarter, that points to improving commercial activity, although I wouldn't say we're over-calling the trend and remain focused on delivering sustainable improvement over time. As I was saying, we now have a baseline for client-facing activity, with advisors spending around half of their time, 46% on average, on client-facing activities. That gives us now a clear measure to improve against as we simplify processes, remove friction points, and improve technology, we'll be running that about every six months or so. Underlying return on capital employed improved year-on-year at the half-year point.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

The aim is simple: better commercial focus, more advisor capacity, and disciplined capital allocation. The fourth priority is to build the most reputable brand in our market through a relevant and distinctive identity, demonstrating leadership and purpose, and more efficient amplification of our brand and narrative to core audiences. Trust remains one of Rathbones' greatest competitive strengths, we recognize that that reputation is not inherited. It's earned every day through the quality of our advice and our service and our relationships. In the first half, we strengthened further the Rathbones brand. We continued to roll out our refreshed visual identity across more channels and more client touchpoints, creating a clearer and more consistent expression of the Rathbones brand and purpose to help more clients invest their money well so they can live well.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

This work was recognized externally when our refreshed brand identity received a Silver Award for Best Creative Rebrand at the 2026 The Indie Awards. We further reinforced our reputation as a leading voice in Wealth Management through industry recognition, media presence, and thought leadership. Rathbones was named City AM Wealth Management Firm of the Year 2026, a great recognition of our leadership and purpose.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

We've initiated work on developing a stronger voice in the industry through a public affairs strategy, have also continued to invest in responsible business and community partnerships, supporting financial education and wider social impact projects. Our share of voice in wealth more than doubled in the first half, reaching 23% across all media, this positioned Rathbones as the number one Wealth Management and asset management brand by share of voice in Tier 1 media during the second quarter.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

I think perhaps most impressively, though, Rathbones also remained the most cited wealth manager across tracked large language model prompts. While engagement across our digital channels continued to grow, our website page views increased some 68% from 57,000 in December 2025 to 96,000 in June 2026, with high engagement of over 2.5 page views per unique user. Employee advocacy also continued to strengthen, significantly extending the reach of the Rathbones brand, with twice as many employees joining our LinkedIn advocacy program. Collectively, these changes have materially strengthened the visibility, the consistency, and the credibility of our brand, our next phase includes broader reputation management, a reputation audit, a stronger policy voice in relevant areas, and the first integrated regional brand campaign under our refreshed identity. The brand measures now show a strong platform, also room to build.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Client advocacy remains strong with an NPS score of 56, which is in the 50-70 bracket, so-called great range for financial services companies. Although it's slightly lower than last year, the score now includes a much broader set of clients and is therefore a more representative measure. Our reputation impact score increased to 63.9 out of 100 in Q2 and remained above the target good threshold in June. The brand awareness survey that was conducted in November will again be conducted in H2. To sum that all up, I'm really proud of what Rathbones has achieved so far this year. We're making really, really good progress in executing our strategy, and the business is beginning to move. The regulatory program is work that strengthens our business, better governance, better data, better processes, and better controls.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Rathbones will emerge from this period a much stronger business, better equipped to serve clients, support colleagues, and generate long-term value for shareholders. I want to end by recognizing the focus and dedication and commitment of colleagues from all across Rathbones as a company. Teams have had to focus really, really hard on serving our clients in this half and supporting one another, and I am very, very grateful for all of their efforts in the course of this year. I'd also like to thank my colleagues on the GEC who have worked particularly tirelessly this half and who are just having a fabulous impact on our company. With that, I'll be happy to take questions with Iain.

[Rae Maile, Analyst at Peel Hunt]

Morning. Rae Maile, Peel Hunt. A couple of questions, Jon, if I could. Starting with the regulatory review. There's always a concern inevitably when you get into these processes that the more stones you lift, the more things you find underneath. Over the first six weeks that you've been working on this process, what so far has pleased you, worried you? Is there anything else which has come along, which is a concern? Secondly, in terms of thinking about the impact on the business, obviously encouraging there's been no outflows to date. Do you perceive there to have been any risk on the pipeline, the flows, the reputation, the standing of the company?

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Okay. Thank you. On the first six weeks, I think just the rate of progress has been really good, and the relationship crucially with the Skilled Person and the Regulator is very positive. I wouldn't say there's anything that's particularly worried me about the first six weeks. I think just been pleased by the rate of progress and the clarity that we now have in terms of how things are set up, how they're going to work, and you start to project a reasonable expectation of timing, as I described, for example, on the EDD clients, of how that process is going to unfold. A lot of work to do, clearly, but really progressing on track and heading in the right direction. In terms of the impact on the business, in terms of current assets under management, it's extremely negligible.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

It's two pieces of the business for GBP 1.4 million. With respect to the pipeline, which in the aggregate, the gross aggregate, not probability weighted, is some GBP 17 billion. You're talking about GBP 178 million across 28 pieces of business that we've taken out of the pipeline. That largely relates to high-risk clients that we can't do business with for the foreseeable. Taken together, the impact of that is, I would describe as negligible. We certainly don't take that for granted, and that effect, I think, is a result of fantastic efforts by colleagues getting out there and engaging with clients and making sure we're very transparent. We lean into the discussions. Clients have as full information as they possibly can.

[Ben Bathurst, Analyst at RBC]

Morning. Ben Bathurst from RBC. Thank you for the detail on the organic growth linked to financial planning. Sort of begs a couple of follow-up questions in that area, if I may. Firstly, what percent of capacity do you think your planners are working at typically at the moment? Following on, how high a priority is it for you to grow the number of financial planners looking forward? Maybe a more specific question, how has the number of financial planners moved in the first half? Thank you.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

I think our financial planners are working at a pretty high capacity rate, so there's not a huge amount of surplus capacity, if I can put it like that. There are clear opportunities to improve the productivity of our financial planners as there are our investment managers, through simplifying processes, as I mentioned, simplifying governance, and gradually, in a measured way, applying AI tools to the processes that they run, particularly suitability. I think capacity usage is very high opportunity, I think to make material gains in productivity with a 12 to 18-month view. The number of financial planners net hasn't really budged much in the course of this year. It's actually very hard to hire good financial planners out there in the market.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

It's something that we recognized at the start of the year, hence one of the reasons why we started the Rathbones Institute. What we want to do is grow our own over time, and then we can grow people in our mold, get them to do business in the way that we want them to and to the standards that we aspire to. That's really one of the driving forces behind the Rathbones Institute is the recognition that we want to grow that capacity and doing that organically is best.

[Jacques Gaulard, Analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux]

Good morning. Jacques Gaulard from Kepler Cheuvreux. Two questions. First, are you comfortable now that the rest of your portfolio, which has not been obviously hit by the FCA, is clear and you're not going to have any issues going forward? Or I know you can't give 100% certainty, but just to make sure that this would be fine. Congratulations on reestablishing the neutral on the Wealth Management. It's super important for a private bank. The asset management remains, obviously a bit disappointing. How long will it take you to lose patience on this and obviously potentially jettison it in light of the fact that one of your main competitor has had 10 years of dragging in its asset management business?

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

I think if you look at the EDD clients, we have 9,600 as a firm, 4,700 of which are caught by this review. When you put a small sample, and it is only a small sample of clients through the new risk framework, probably around half of them end up being high risk at the end of it. I think the proportion of high-risk clients that we'll have in the business will go down rather than up. That framework over time needs to be applied to all of our client base in the normal run of business. I think the direction of travel, according to our expectations sitting here today, that will emerge from this with fewer high-risk clients rather than more, because historically, we've taken quite a conservative stance on what constituted a high-risk client.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

On the asset management business, RAM is a very active asset management business. We have a collection of fund managers who have a particularly exceptional long-term track record over a 20, 25-year period. Quite uniquely, that track record has been developed at RAM, not somewhere else, and then brought in-house. Our style effectively hinges on quality and value. That has been a very difficult place to be, as we all know, in the last year or so. That means near term, the performance track records are nothing to write home about in one or two places. Long term, it is exceptional. If you're going to be in the active asset management business, you want to be very active and not look to hug benchmarks. I think, you certainly at a time like this, don't want to see style drift.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

We believe in that core approach of quality and value. We'll continue on that path. Flows follow performance clearly in the long-only space, as difficult as it is to be an active asset manager at the moment in U.K. retail, I think it is still true to say in the asset management industry that where you have performance, you will get flows. It's quite rare to see a fund that has really exceptional performance not be sold to capacity in the fullness of time.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

We're big believers in active management. We're big believers in the team that we have at RAM. We're big believers in their style, in terms of quality and value. It just happens to be a difficult moment in time. To your question about losing patience, the only card is patience in this business. We will continue to be patient according to their style, and I have a lot of confidence in the team.

[Jacques Gaulard, Analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux]

Thank you.

[Shelly Patel, Head of Investor Relations at Rathbones]

If there's no more questions in the room, if you do have a question on the live webcast, you can enter it now. In the meantime, can we just go to our conference call if there's any questions on the line?

[Operator]

If you'd like to ask a question on the phone lines, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two to remove yourself from the question queue. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. The first question comes from Vivek Raja of Investec. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Vivek Raja, Analyst at Investec]

Hi. Good morning, chaps. Thank you for the presentation. The first question was about operating margin. Just to track towards your revised Q4 target, could you just say, Iain, please, probably, what you achieved in Q2 in terms of operating margin? The next question was about commission income, obviously that's been more elevated than I think you've expected at the beginning of the year, reasonable first half. What do you encourage us to think about for the rest of the year there? The final question was about scope potentially to mitigate the fee margin compression from the fact that you're removing management fees on discretionary portfolio cash. Is that mitigation, is there anything in revenues you could do there, or is that probably going to be a cost thing? Thanks.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Okay, thanks.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Thank you. Sorry, Vivek, could you just repeat the first question on operating margin? I couldn't catch the last few words of your question.

[Vivek Raja, Analyst at Investec]

Yes, of course. Apologies. It was just to ask what you did in Q2.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

What will happen in Q2 that will support the achievement of the margin? Well, Q2, of course, is seasonally normally better because we don't have the FSCS levy in there, which is GBP 5.5 million all incurred in Q1 in the normal course. We've got the reduction in the costs of the technology costs, which I touched on, GBP 6 million will be lower, and that will be effectively kicking in from the end of Q3 once we've implemented the Salesforce system.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

That we'll see some reduction in the run rate of those costs from that point onwards. Then we've been working on continuous improvement, very much aligned to what Jon's talking about in the overall strategy. Those continuous improvements, removal of friction points and things, deliver efficiencies gradually over time. We'll start to see those come through in the second half.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Those three things are principally what will help underpin that improvement in margin, in the second half of the year relative to the first. In terms of commission income, commission income is of course, transaction-based, is difficult to predict that. It depends on market conditions and things. The reason we guided that we may see some reduction in that this year compared to last year, was last year was particularly buoyant in the levels of activity, particularly around the budgets and those sorts of things. That hasn't happened. Market conditions have been very supportive and presented investment opportunities. We'll continue to see a continuation of that level of activity and some increase in income.

[Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones]

Always difficult to guide on that, if market conditions continue as they are, you may continue to see that be maintained, I wouldn't rule out some tail off in the second half of the year, depending on where market conditions go. In terms of the ability to mitigate the fee margin compression, there are still things we can do in terms of continuous improvement to drive efficiencies. There are elements as well to do with our margin or approach to pricing and those sorts of things, which we are just considering as we move forward. It will take some time to go through that process, but we do look to mitigate that over time.

[Vivek Raja, Analyst at Investec]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question is from Christiane Holstein of Bank of America. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Christiane Holstein, Analyst at Bank of America]

Oh, hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Just a couple from me. Firstly, on net flows, obviously positive into Wealth Management is very encouraging for Q2. I was just wondering if there was anything specifically that drove this step up, do you see these net inflows as sustainable in the near term? On the asset management business as well, I know you said it's all about strong performance and patience, I was just wondering if there's anything else you can do in terms of new products, marketing. Do you still expect to see margin pressure? Just, is there anything to get flows into that business near term? My next question's on the regulatory review. I was just trying to understand targeted client review portion, given this is separate to the enhanced due diligence.

[Christiane Holstein, Analyst at Bank of America]

Sorry if I missed this, just wondering if you could expand a little bit on who this exactly involves and how large this group could potentially be. With the regulatory review, do you see any risk from time spent on this in terms of this detracting time from investment managers and frontline in generating net flows? I just know that this was seen previously and now that with the IW&I integration and now that the review has progressed and you have a better idea of time required, I was just wondering if you think there'll be an impact. Thank you.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Sure. On net flows, as I commented, we've had three quarters now of higher gross inflows. They've gone from GBP 2.1 billion, GBP 2.2 billion up to GBP 2.8 billion, GBP 2.9 billion. There are probably three drivers behind that. One is there was a certain amount of pent-up activity going into the budget late last year. That had an effect. It sort of held back certain activity that then came through, number one. Number two, post-integration and hopefully with a little bit of an injection of pace into the business in the last few quarters, we have just seen activity levels go up as people have more time to spend on client-facing activities. That's certainly been a factor post-integration.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Third, that we have a set of capabilities which I think extends in the marketplace very well, by which I mean there is no reason why we cannot go after larger clients and larger pools of capital. Certainly in the last nine months or so, we've had some success winning larger pieces of business, which in our parlance would mean something like over GBP 20 million of assets. In addition to that core of our business, our typical type of business in the GBP 1 million-GBP 5 million range, we've also been able to use our capabilities and successfully pitch for some larger mandates as well, which is pleasing. I would point to those three factors as to why there's been a shift in that rate of gross inflows. On Asset Management, you're quite right. It's not just a matter of waiting out performance.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

We are adding strategies. I think it's fair to say in Asset Management, if you go out and try to hire a team in a certain strategy, you can always do that. There'll always be someone available, but you do need to have the patience to wait for the right team to hire. We need to be in strategies where it is possible to generate outperformance. Defendable, I won't call them niches, but defendable areas where we're able to generate sustained alpha. As you'd imagine, Tom and team have a number of areas where we're looking for talent. I think that would be something like at the rate of two or three teams every couple of years. Most recently, we've hired a couple of teams, one in EM and one in Asia, both in equities.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Having been out marketing those strategies for nine months or so, building quite a reasonable amount of interest in those new strategies. Point one would be selectively expanding our range of strategies, but only in areas where we can generate alpha on a sustained basis. In terms of channels, our business has been very focused on the U.K. retail market historically. I think we are seeing opportunities that we've begun to pursue, particularly in institutional markets, both in the U.K. and on the continent. Those are certainly two areas of focus in terms of generating growth in the Asset Management business. On the targeted client review, essentially as part of the Skilled Person Review, you had a sample of files drawn from across the business, and then those files are reviewed from a number of different perspectives.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

It could be portfolio suitability, client suitability, vulnerability, change of circumstances, and of course, AML. You have a concentration of issues in some of those files, you take a sample of files of those type and review those. The notion of a targeted review means what it says on the tin. It's very hard to put a percentage figure on that, but targeted would tend to mean much, much south of 50%. The first step is to agree the methodology of the review, which we've done. Take a sample of client files, probably in the region of 300, that exhibit the sort of issues that you might have found in the Skilled Person Review.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

You review those, which we will have done by the end of September, after that, you'll have a clearer idea of what the targeted review as a whole would look like. I'd just reiterate a couple of things that we said at the time of the announcement. One is the cost of doing that review is insured, number one. Number two, the cost of redress is also insured. The rule of thumb when you're looking at a targeted client review where there has been no suggestion of deliberate wrongdoing or bad faith, which is the case here, is that the cost of redress would typically be less than the cost of doing the exercise itself. Again, the cost of redress is covered by insurance. There are three caveats to that to ensure that everyone has the information.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

The three caveats are, one, insurance has a limit, but there is a good amount of headroom between where our insurance policies cover us and the anticipated amounts that we would be on the hook for, number one. Number two, insurance doesn't cover you for fees that you have to return to clients. Other players in the industry have had issues clearly where they couldn't evidence that certain services had been provided and therefore had to give back fees to clients. We did our version of that review last year, we returned GBP 3.7 million to clients.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

That issue was dealt with last year. The third is it doesn't cover fines. Whilst we sit here with no expectation of being fined, that obviously is always in the regulator's playbook. Those are the three caveats to whether the amount could increase from this point. As I say, we're keen to be as transparent as possible. You know everything that we know, That's the nature of the exercise. On the resource point, which I think was your last question, it's really important that we see this whole program as part of our strategy. As I said, it reinforces everything that we're doing, I would estimate that 90% of what we're doing in the program of work we would have done anyway.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

When it comes to the targeted client review, which clearly we wouldn't have done anyway, we have to make sure that that's resourced adequately, We're working with EY to provide that resource so that that does not become a drain on the business as we are executing on our strategy. The FCA have given us a lot of time and space to do this work. It's a two-year program, Effectively that's a full cycle of work where we can get this done. It feels like we have the breathing room to do this properly and not have it distract us unduly from day-to-day work.

[Christiane Holstein, Analyst at Bank of America]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. We have no further questions on the phone lines.

[Shelly Patel, Head of Investor Relations at Rathbones]

We have no further questions online. I'll pass it back to you, Jon, to close.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Okay. Well, thank you, Shelly, and I'm now going to embarrass you thoroughly. Which is to say, Shelly, for those of you who don't know, is unfortunately moving on, but happily to a wonderful opportunity at a much lesser company. Shelly has had a fantastic career at Rathbones, and over the last nearly 11 years, the firm has really changed beyond all recognition, and Shelly has been front and center of all of us in this room, though, of communicating that story to the market, and I think she's done a fabulous job. On a personal note, in the last year, Shelly has nearly kept me out of trouble and has just done a fantastic job, and I'm very grateful to Shelly for all the work she's done putting up with me as I've settled into the role.

[Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones]

Thank you very much to Shelly for everything you've done. Our loss is Legal & General's gain. On behalf of all of us, I would like to thank you and wish you the very best of luck. We're only around the corner, we will keep in touch. I think if we could just have a short round of applause for Shelly. Nicola, who you all know, who is sitting next to Shelly, has very big shoes to fill, but I know he's been very well trained and is going to do a fantastic job. With that, thank you very much. Have a great holiday.

Participants

Analysts

• Jon Sorrell, Group CEO at Rathbones
• Iain Hooley, Group CFO at Rathbones
• Rae Maile, Analyst at Peel Hunt
• Ben Bathurst, Analyst at RBC
• Jacques Gaulard, Analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux
• Shelly Patel, Head of Investor Relations at Rathbones
• Vivek Raja, Analyst at Investec
• Christiane Holstein, Analyst at Bank of America