Hello, and welcome to AJ Bell's 2024 interim results video. We're shortly going to hear from Michael Summersgill and Peter Birch, CEO and CFO of AJ Bell. But first, let's go through some of the key numbers from the first half. Starting with customers, and AJ Bell's total customer numbers passed the 500,000 milestone in the period, closing at 518,000. Assets under administration closed at GBP 85.8 billion, up 13% in the period. Platform net inflows were up 45% versus the prior year at GBP 2.9 billion, with GBP 1.2 billion attributable to the Adviser platform and GBP 1.7 billion being D2C.
Moving on to the key numbers from the first half results announced today, revenue was up 27% to GBP 131.3 million, with both ad valorem and transactional revenues up significantly versus the prior year. Ad valorem revenue was up 30% to GBP 97.9 million, driven by growth in custody fees, resulting from higher average platform AUA and an increase in net interest income generated on cash balances held on the platform. Transactional fees were up 35% to GBP 17.4 million, following an improvement in retail investor sentiment, which drove higher levels of customer dealing activity in both domestic and international equities. Administrative expenses increased by 17% to GBP 72.3 million, in line with expectation, whilst net finance income totaled GBP 2.5 million due to higher rates earned on corporate cash balances.
Taken together, this resulted in a 47% increase in profit before tax to GBP 61.4 million and a significantly improved PBT margin of 46.8%. And finally, on dividends, the board has declared an interim dividend of 4.25 pence per share, up 21% on the prior year. This represents a payout of 40% of last year's total ordinary dividend. You can find full details about these results on our website. Now let's hear from Michael and Peter and get some insight into what's behind these numbers, and also their expectations for the second half of the year and beyond.
It's been a really positive period for AJ Bell. We've continued to deliver that strong organic growth that we've delivered for many years now. But as equally important for me is the progress that we've made with all the objectives that we set ourselves at the start of the year. Obviously, it's been a really enjoyable period. I enjoyed working with the team, and I think we're making great progress as a business. We passed 500,000 customers on the platform in the period, and it's always pleasing to see those milestones achieved. The important thing about them is that it says as much about the performance of the business in years gone by as it does in the period.
You know, if you cast your mind back to when we listed the business around five years ago, we had about 200,000 customers at that point. So to be past 500,000 now shows the growth of the platform business in that period. But if I'm honest, I always find you've got to really focus on, okay, what did you achieve in the period? And so the number that I'm more drawn to is the net inflows figure, 'cause that's what we really drove in the period. And we saw net inflows of GBP 2.9 billion, which is one of the strongest figures in the market. I think it really validates our dual channel approach to the platform market, with growth well split across the Adviser and the direct-to-consumer business.
That's what we want to see for many years to come. Everything that we do in the business, we're trying to focus on being an easy platform to use, be competitively priced, and be a trusted provider. The first two, we'll cover in more detail later. In terms of trying to be a trusted provider, for me, it breaks down into two parts. First of all, you've got to have a brand that's recognized by customers to attract people to the business. Well, then you've got to earn the trust that they've placed in you on an ongoing basis. For me, the service that we provide to customers is all important there.
So it's principally a digital product that we're providing, but at various points in the investment life cycle, people will want to ask a question or want to reach out or want to access some of the knowledge that we have in the business, and that's where our team excels. So even through the busiest period in the year, in March, leading up to the tax year end, over 94% of the calls were answered within 20 seconds, and that's straight through to somebody in the team here that can then answer the question that the customer has. And keeping the service standards at those sorts of levels is what will make us a trusted provider.
So financial performance has been exceptionally strong in the half year. Revenue and profit both up significantly year-on-year. We delivered revenue of GBP 131.3 million, which is a 27% increase versus the same period in the previous year. There were three main drivers of that increase. The first one was custody fee revenue, which was higher as a result of higher average AUA balances. Net interest income was higher as a result of higher average interest rates in the period. And pleasingly, we saw a return to higher levels of transactional revenue driven by dealing activity from our customers. So overall, those three factors have contributed to a really pleasing revenue outcome for the period.
That really does reflect the diversified revenue model that we have, and the strength of that model. Total costs for the period were in line with our expectation at GBP 72.3 million, which is a 17% year-on-year increase. There were three principal drivers of the year-on-year increase in costs. First one, being staff costs. People will remember that coming into this, this year, inflation was at a heightened level, and that was reflected in the pay award that we gave to our people at the time. In addition to that, because our financial performance is above our original expectations, so is the variable pay that we're expecting to pay to our people as well.
So that has also impacted staff costs, but that is a, you know, it's a positive, positive story. The second aspect is brand and marketing, so that shows in our distribution costs. The investment we're making in brand has been well- trailed, people understand that. We did spend a little bit extra on marketing as well in the period. That wasn't budgeted at the beginning of the year. We felt quite confident with the traction that we were getting heading into the tax year-end, and so decided to turn the tap up a little bit more. And we feel that we've, you know, we've seen some benefit from that. The third aspect, which is within our operational support costs, is transactional costs, so dealing costs.
Those are up, but again, that's a positive story because it, it's more than offset by the related revenue stream that we've seen coming through. Overall, financial performance has been exceptionally strong as a result of revenue being ahead of expectation and costs being managed in line with expectation. We've delivered a PBT of GBP 61.4 million, which is a PBT margin of 46.8%, which is, as I say, you know, ahead of expectation and very pleasing. So the board has declared an interim dividend of GBP 0.0425 per share, which is a 21% increase, compared with the half year 2023.
So in terms of capital allocation, the board has given consideration to this in the period in the context of the fact that we have generated significant levels of profitability, significant levels of cash. Historically, the business has had a dividend policy, and what we've announced today is a capital allocation framework, which better articulates the way that we already think about how we deploy capital in the business. But it more clearly steps through considerations around meeting regulatory capital requirements, the investments we want to make into the business, consideration of any M&A opportunities, and then distribution of surplus capital to shareholders. The other point that's worth drawing out in relation to the new policy is, historically, we've had a fixed dividend of 65% of profit for the year.
We're moving to more of a progressive dividend approach, which works for us, given that we've had 19 years of consecutive ordinary dividend growth. Then from a surplus capital perspective, we've historically gone through a three-year cycle and assessed at that point in time, what is the level of surplus capital, and then distributed it by means of a special dividend. Going forward, we'll be looking at this annually and thinking about whether we want to pay a special dividend or indeed, whether we want to do a share buyback program. Pension consolidation is a huge part of the target market for AJ Bell. Always has been, and we've always been very successful in that space. We've got lots of customers who've consolidated pensions with us.
What we're trying to do with the Ready-made pension is make it easier for people. So we're asking for far less data up front. We're doing far more of the work for the customer, and we've put a far, far more straightforward investment solution behind that. So what the Ready-made pension is doing is trying to broaden the appeal of the pension consolidation offering at AJ Bell. Cash products represent a significant part of the addressable market for investment platforms. For me, there's two ways in which you can offer cash products that are relevant. So one is offering a Cash savings solution to existing customers, so people can manage their cash and their investments separately, and they've got very separate time horizons for those asset classes, short- term for cash, long- term for investments.
We do that through the Cash savings hub, and that, that works well. The other part of the market is trying to encourage people who haven't invested in the markets to do so. We think that Dodl is a, is the right platform to use to do that. So the concept that we've developed is called Earn and Learn. So we will put a, an attractive cash rate on the product that will compete with other cash products. But from the off, it'll be very clear that it's all about investing over the long- term. And through providing investment content to customers, we'll try and explain to them the benefits of investing, over the long- term and the enhanced returns that they could deliver.
So that is a new part of the market that we're trying to address, and that's a product that we'll launch in the second half of the year. We reduced the prices that customers pay for using the platform in April. For me, it's a core part of our philosophy as a business. It's something we've done in the past. It's something I would expect we will do again in the future. So as we grow, as we see the financial performance strengthen due to the enhanced scale of the business, we want to use that to benefit the customers in part. So that was the reason for it. The timing wasn't quite what we'd hoped for.
We'd hoped to do it a little bit earlier than the 1st of April, but the timing of the FCA's review of cash margin on platforms just meant that we had to wait for that to complete before we could then communicate with confidence the pricing that we wanted to run with on the platform. So that's why the 1st of April, so a little later than planned, but incredibly competitive pricing that we have on the platforms as a result of those changes. So we have updated our full year guidance for FY 2024. Both revenue and profit will be higher than what we guided back in December. But the main reason for that is the delay in the pricing changes that Michael alluded to earlier.
So that's resulted in heightened levels of both revenue and profit in half one. Those pricing changes play through in half two, and so we'll see a reduction in revenue margin and profit margin in the second half. And so the overall result for the year will moderate in those aspects. Into FY 2025, you will see a full year impact of those pricing changes. However, we also expect cost growth to be at a lower level than we've seen in FY 2024. And so we do expect to continue to generate healthy profit margins into FY 2025 and beyond.
There were a number of market developments in the period. For me, there were two key areas of focus. So the first was the health of the U.K. capital markets, and then the second was the long-standing advice gap in the U.K. In the first, the U.K. capital markets, I'm not seeing an answer yet. We've seen some, I think, poor ideas emerge, the U.K. ISA being top of my list. I'm not a fan, as people know, and we've, you know, we've shared our reasoning for that.
There is a consultation out there, and of course, we'll engage with that consultation. I think if we can iron out some of the particularly poor aspects of the product, there might be an operable product at the end of it. But it's a niche product. It's not gonna do anything to meaningfully strengthen the U.K. capital markets. There are other ideas that have been proposed, and they seem to fall into the category of either incentives in the form of removing stamp duty or changes to the capital gains tax or inheritance tax regimes. You've got that way of approaching the problem, and the other is more diktats, people trying to mandate how asset allocation within pension schemes, for example, is conducted.
We would have some concerns about the latter, and I can see political challenges with the former. So I'm not seeing anything emerge in that space yet as a clear way forward. In the other category, the advice gap there, I think some real progress has been made. So the Advice Guidance Boundary Review, a joint review being conducted by the Treasury and the FCA, which we and a number of other providers are a part, that has made meaningful progress. For me, it... the ideal would be that every customer would have access to whole of market, independent financial advice, but that's just not realistic. It's not commercially viable for providers to give that kind of support to people with smaller portfolios.
So what the Advice Guidance Boundary Review is about, in the main, for me, is trying to find ways to support those customers. And I think Targeted Support, one of the proposals, is absolutely along the right lines. So we, and I know that there's a lot of support for this in the industry, we and others will carry on contributing to that, to that working group to try and make sure that that, that comes into existence. And that would represent an opportunity for AJ Bell as a business, also for other providers in the platform market as well. I think an awful lot of good could be done for customers there. The broader outlook for AJ Bell, as ever, I'm very positive about.
You know, I think we're in a great market. I think that there's more opportunities for us in that market. Plenty of opportunity left still to grow. I think we're approaching that market in the right way. Our dual channel approach to the platform market, I believe, is the right one. I look around me in the building, and I'm very encouraged by what I see. We've got a very engaged workforce. I think I've got the right team around me. I've got a supportive board. So I'm looking forward to carrying on with all the plans that we have in the second half of this year and beyond.