Hey everyone,
I just wanted to clarify a few things here based on your questions and comments.
We receive all dividends into non-interest paying accounts with our custodians in the different markets we offer. When we receive dividends in USD and EUR we’ll convert to GBP and move the proceeds into our GBP client money account until distributed. UK dividends are swept into the GBP client money account from +1 day after the pay date.
In terms of timings, US-listed companies are always going to be at least + 1 day from the pay date by design - this is how our US broker dealer pays dividends.
Client money accounts are interest bearing accounts. The period of time any dividends sit there prior to distribution is negligible and the movement of cash in this way aligns with client asset rules and our terms and conditions.
To put into perspective some of the late payments, across the last twelve months we saw about 5% of the total value of all dividends paid late. That’s including the period before we started automating some of the processes with US listed shares.
Our aim is to always pay out dividends as soon after they are received as possible.