Fidelity Investments round off 2020 with record annual operation revenue, lifted by solid stock-market gains and an unanticipated wave of new individual investors. Fidelity parent FMR LLC said on Tuesday that operating income climbed 4.6% to $7.2 billion last year. Income totaled $21 billion, little changed for a year earlier. Fidelity, a private company controlled by the Johnson family, didn’t list its net income in the annual report. Fidelity had 26 million retail accounts in 2020, up 17% from a year earlier. Workplace retirement accounts, including those 401(k) plans, climbed 7.9% to 32.6 million. Daily trading volume doubled.It was an unusual year for the money-management industry. The market panic over the pandemic’s effects on the global economy quickly gave way to a rally that elevated stocks towards record highs. Individual investors’ interest in the market caught fire. Brokers dropped commissions to zero and allowed clients trade in fractions of popular stocks, revving up a record year for individual-trading volume. The industry added millions of new clients. Low-or no-cost brokerage accounts and investment funds have supported in attracting a generation of new investors to the wealth-management industry. While those products won’t support short-term profit margins, firms such as Fidelity are hoping that their new clients will eventually turn to them for more lucrative services, including financial advice.
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