Brewin Dolphin to ride out costly regulation changes

BREWIN DOLPHIN hopes to steal a march on smaller wealth managers when the industry starts shelling out for costly new EU regulations next year as it reported weaker headline profits today.

MiFid II, which bolsters transparency, may be a drag on smaller regional players with lower budgets because it can be costly to implement, chief executive David Nicol said.

“Because of our size we can deal with it and that can create a market advantage,” he added.

Brewin, which sponsors the Goodwood Revival car festival, has been working on the change for “quite a few months”.

Finance director Andrew Westenberger said costs will be in the “low single millions”. Brewin’s annual costs are £222 million.

The 254-year old wealth firm reported £50.1 million of pre-tax profits, down from £61 million previously as it pushes on with a strategic overhaul.

Core income, which tracks parts of the business Brewin is focusing on, rose 4.8% to £263.3 million. The group has stopped accepting new clients into its advisory business.