Robinhood Extends Trading Platform to UK, Aims for Global Expansion

By: Isha Das

Robinhood, the popular online trading platform, has announced plans to expand its services to the United Kingdom. The company's co-founder and CEO, Vladimir Tenev, confirmed this information in an interview with Bloomberg, stating that the company intends to gradually roll out its platform to everyone in the UK by early 2024. This move aligns with Robinhood's continuous expansion strategy to reach a global market, aiming to make its services available to anyone, anywhere in the world.

The launch will allow British users to trade approximately 6,000 U.S. stocks through Robinhood's platform. In addition, Robinhood intends to implement its 24-hour trading feature in the UK, a feature that was recently deployed in the U.S. The company expects to meet the needs of the UK market better than any other platform in offering U.S. stocks and U.S. dollar investments.

Robinhood’s decision to provide its platform in the UK also introduces competition to local and international trading platforms like Public.com, Revolut, and Freetrade, among others. The trading platform will be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Notably, this is not Robinhood's first attempt to enter the UK market. The company had previously tried in 2019 but delayed the launch in 2020 to assess its global expansion strategy.

As part of its strategy to attract more investors, particularly those with lower financial resources, Robinhood also plans to offer features like 5% interest and the option for users to convert their uninvested funds from pounds to dollars. Moreover, the firm is committed to providing zero-fee trading to UK users, a concept that disrupts traditional fee structure in the stock market trading and has proven popular with Robinhood's U.S. users.