Financial services platform Robinhood (HOOD) has announced its plans to launch in the UK. Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi sat down with CEO Vlad Tenev to discuss the launch, the global market, and what Robinhood is doing to lead innovation in the market.
Regarding the push to launch in the UK and EU, Tenev states that “people overseas need it even more than in the US” due to the fact that some areas lack banking infrastructure. When it comes to specifically the UK launch, Tenev says he is focused on “solving one, particular pain point, which is we want to be the best place for people to access the US dollar and the US equity markets in the UK.”
Discussing the company’s “24 hour market,” Tenev says that “it increases the overlap between the hours that Robinhood is available for real-time execution and the waking hours.” When asked about the push to make the 24-hour market an industry standard, Tenev says “it will be the industry standard, someone just has to do it first, and in that case, Robinhood was the first to push that innovation forward.” Tenev notes one current challenge is the issue of “clearing over the weekend,” which Tenev says he is “keen” to take on.
When it comes to the retail investor, Tenev says they are starting to “wake up to certain segments” and that there has been a “ground swell” of crypto activity as the price of bitcoin rises.
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