Not upheld: Order execution and handling; failure to cancel order; delay in posting shares to account complaint against Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited
Financial Ombudsman decision DRN-5931366 of 2026-04-29T00:00:00+00:00. Order execution and handling; failure to cancel order; delay in posting shares to account complaint against Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited. Outcome: Not upheld.
Decision detail
| Reference | DRN-5931366 |
|---|---|
| Decision date | 2026-04-29T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Firm | Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited |
| Product | Investment |
| Claim type | Order execution and handling; failure to cancel order; delay in posting shares to account |
| Outcome | Not upheld |
| Remedy | No remedy ordered. HL's apology for the 10-minute posting delay was considered sufficient. |
Summary
Mr S placed a fill or kill order out of market hours to buy shares across three accounts. After markets opened on 10 April 2025, the order took 27 minutes to execute (at 8:27am) due to unusually high trading volumes following a US tariff announcement. Mr S attempted to cancel the order but was told it could not be cancelled as it was being processed. There was a further 10-minute delay before the shares were posted to his accounts, preventing him from immediately selling them as he wished. The ombudsman found that HL's terms and conditions clearly stated orders would be executed 'as soon as practicable' (not immediately) and could not be cancelled once submitted for dealing. The execution time and posting delay were reasonable given the market conditions and HL's protective measures against duplicate orders. The complaint was not upheld.
The Ombudsman's reasoning
The ombudsman found that HL's terms and conditions clearly set out that fill or kill orders placed out of market hours would be executed 'as soon as practicable' after market opening, not necessarily immediately. The 27-minute execution time was reasonable given the unusually high trading volumes and the fact that HL manually processed the order. HL's terms explicitly stated that orders cannot be cancelled once submitted for dealing, and the ombudsman was satisfied the order had been submitted for dealing by the time Mr S attempted to cancel it. The 10-minute delay in posting the shares to the account was a deliberate measure to prevent duplicate orders during high-volume trading and was relatively short. While HL could have provided clearer information during phone calls, the ombudsman found this would not have changed the outcome given the circumstances were beyond HL's control.
How this compares
| Group | Decisions | Uphold rate |
|---|---|---|
| Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited, all decisions | 590 | 17% |
| Investment, all decisions | 13,970 | 35% |
Source
Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website