GlobalNetFinancial and Freeserve have teamed up to launch a UK online brokerage operation, StockAcademy.com as well as a separate stock settlement operation.
StockAcademy will also be available shortly on Active Digital, Telewest's UK broadband digital television service, as well as on British Telecom's Cellnet mobile network of WAP mobile phone users in the UK. Under the agreement, Telewest and BT mobile users will be given access to GlobalNetFinancial's online news and content, share price alerts, stock price quotes, and have the capability to buy and sell shares via StockAcademy.com.
Visitors to the StockAcademy site can open and activate an account entirely online and trade over the system within minutes at a flat rate of £15 for every trade, with a guaranteed real-time price hold for trades done online. The system will also offer "in-depth" financial workshops for novice, intermediate and experienced investors, free of charge.
Julian Martin-Redman, senior executive officer of Stock Academy, says: "We have taken a lot of the hassle out of opening an account with our wholly online service, cutting the time in normal circumstances from a few weeks to a few minutes. (Customers) can also sell paper certificated shares immediately, simply by funding their cash account with 10% of the value of the sale".