Customer-to-Shareholder Culture: What Aberdeen's AGM Revealed About Retail Investor Engagement

The Interactive Investor parent's thoughts on making shareholding mainstream: their push for broader retail participation in UK equities

At this year’s Aberdeen AGM, I submitted a question online—a straightforward but critical one about the future of shareholder inclusion in the UK:

Given the popularity of ii (Interactive Investor), what plans do we have to cultivate a customer-to-shareholder culture—where your customers also become shareholders—and could you run us through some of the activities you undertake to engage with and meet with your existing retail shareholder base?

The Company Secretary read the full question aloud—on record, in the room, with attribution to me and to The Engagement Appeal, which I chair. It was gratifying to see a FTSE company take the question seriously and respond substantively—because the issue at hand is urgent.

In the UK, retail investors currently hold just 8% of the market—compared with 35% in the US. That gap speaks volumes about access, culture, and communication. Our capital markets need reviving—and retail has a vital role to play in doing so.

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A Serious Response from Serious Leaders