Nucleus acquires Curtis Banks to create £80bn adviser platform

Nucleus Financial Platforms has announced that its acquisition of the Curtis Banks Group has received all necessary regulatory approvals.

Curtis Banks is one of the UK's largest independent of providers of Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) schemes and Small Self Administered Pension Schemes (SSAS) with over £37.4bn of assets under administration.

Bringing together Nucleus and Curtis Banks will create a retirement-focused adviser platform with approximately £80 billion of assets under administration, helping nearly 5,000 advisers support almost 250,000 customers.

For the immediate future both businesses will continue to operate independently and there will be no immediate change for advisers or clients of either business.

Peter Docherty, currently interim CEO of Curtis Banks, will continue to lead the Curtis Banks business reporting to Richard Rowney, Group CEO of Nucleus. It is expected that in time, Curtis Banks will be rebranded as Nucleus.

Richard Rowney, CEO of Nucleus, said: “We are pleased to have now received regulatory approval, and look forward to completing this transformational deal in the coming weeks. We’ll then start working closely with our new colleagues at Curtis Banks to bring together our businesses and provide a best-in-class service to the advisers we serve.

“We’re creating one of the largest adviser platform groups in the UK with assets under administration of c.£80bn. Curtis Banks will be an important part of our group, bringing award-winning SIPP and SSAS offerings, which will help us in our purpose of helping make retirement more rewarding.”

Peter Docherty, interim CEO of Curtis Banks, added: “Receiving regulatory approval is a key milestone in the acquisition process. Once the transaction completes we can start to bring our businesses together in a considered, mindful and practical way, ensuring we have the best combination of technologies, operations and structure that can deliver the group’s strategy.”