Adviser platform Transact is to reduce its buy commission exemption threshold from £200,000 to £100,000 from 1 March.

The charge reduction is set to benefit around 34,000 clients who will no longer be charged the commission.

When clients buy an investment the platform charges a buy commission of 0.05% for portfolios over the threshold.

Transact said the reduction makes its platform better value for smaller portfolios.

Charge reductions in March and July helped 167,000 clients, with the platform cutting its annual commission charge from 0.27% to 0.26%.

Transact also reduced the buy commission exemption threshold from £300,000 and waived the £20 quarterly wrapper fee for SIPP and personal pensions for children in linked family groups until they turn 18.

The reduction in the buy commission exemption threshold was announced alongside parent company Integrafin’s annual results which showed average daily funds under direction for Transact up 11% year-on-year to £52.5bn.

Funds under direction at 30 September fell 4% to £50.1bn (2021: £52.1bn) which parent company Integrafin attributed to negative market movements.

Gross inflows for the platform fell slightly to £7.3bn from the record £7.7bn in 2021 due to the impact of economic and political events.

Net inflows dropped 11% to £4.4bn for the year (2021: £4.95bn).

The number of advisers registered on the Transact platform grew 5% over the year from 7,200 to 7,500. The number of clients with assets on the platform grew 8% from 209,000 to 225,000.

Developments introduced by the platform this year include wider acceptance of e-signatures and the development of guided applications to open new portfolios and accept transfers online.

In September the platform added a Blackrock-run model portfolio service (MPS) to extend its choice of discretionary investment managers.

Transact said the service has been “well received” since its launch.

Jonathan Gunby, CEO at Transact, said: “‘This year we have made significant progress on the digitalisation of our platform. We placed more resources behind adviser platform education and made significant impactful operational changes to structure the business well for the years ahead.

“The outlook for Transact is very positive, however, we are mindful of the difficult economic environment that will be a challenge for many and so we are pleased to announce our latest price reduction. As always, advisers have a significant role to play during these times of economic uncertainty as they can positively impact their clients’ financial wellbeing.”

Parent company Integrafin said it is also on track to roll out the next generation of Time4Advice’s CURO software to advice firms during the second half of 2023, with the software currently live with an adviser firm for beta testing.

Overall group profit before tax decreased 15% to £54.4m, which Integrafin said was due to its an ongoing VAT battle with HMRC.

Integrafin said the battle with HMRC added £1.8m to the firm’s core expenses for the year, as well as adding £8.8m to its non-underlying expenses as it paid all prior year contested VAT and interest to allow the firm to appeal the findings of the tribunal.

A review by HMRC had led to the decision to exclude one of Integrafin’s companies from the UK VAT group. The VAT is related to internal charging mechanisms within the Integrafin group and is expected to have no bearing on adviser or client fees.

The company was first hit with an unexpected £4.3m VAT bill in January 2020.