There are a handful of small updates to some of the UK stock brokers in the stock broker directory and comparison tables, few of which have much impact on international investing.
1) Interactive Investor has now launched its own share dealing service (previously it was a white label of Halifax Share Dealing). The stock broker directory and comparison tables have been updated where relevant, but the company has not yet been given its own entry because this provider is of very limited interest from an international investing perspective and seems to be experiencing some severe teething problems with the new Interactive Investor service.
If it introduces any major improvements to the service – there is some talk of more countries being added – this will change.
2) TD Waterhouse has now rebranded itself as TD Direct Investing, while charges for both this and its white label services NatWest Stockbrokers and RBS Share Dealing have also changed slightly. In particular, note that for TD Waterhouse accounts, foreign currency conversion commission is now up to 2% (from up to 1.75%) and the inactivity fee now applies to accounts under £7,500 (up from £5,000).
3) Bestinvest has launched a share dealing service, Bestinvest Select. Details have been added to the UK stock brokers list, but there doesn’t appear to be any international dealing service and it is not especially competitive as a low-cost stock broker.
4) Halifax has altered a few of its charges, including increase fees for reinvesting dividends, regular saver investments and processing corporate actions.