A strong start to the year for Hargreaves Lansdown will come as welcome news to the UK funds supermarket, which took a hit to its share price earlier this week after US giant Vanguard launched a rival retail platform.

In a trading statement for the four months to the end of April, Hargreaves Lansdown said it had notched up net new business of £3.3bn and increased assets under administration by 17% to £77bn. Net new business over the 10 months since the start of its financial year in July was at £5.6bn.