Spread-betting Firm Fined for Misleading Public

The Financial Services Authority, the City of London’s financial watchdog, has hit Spread Betting Firm Cantor Index with a £70,000 fine, for failing to sufficiently highlight the pitfalls of spread betting in one of their recent marketing campaigns. The campaign offered those who signed up to its telephone service a free Xda combined handheld computer and mobile phone but, according to the FSA, failed to warn that unsuccessful spread betting could result in the punter losing more than his initial deposit.
Although the adverts contained risk warnings the FSA argued they were not prominent enough, and the authority criticised Cantor for specifically targeting customers with little experience of spread betting.

Anna Bradley, director of the FSA retail themes division, said: 'Cantor Index should have paid more attention to the greater potential risk posed to less experienced investors and the greater need to ensure that the risks associated with spread betting were likely to be understood by them. This should have been done through robust systems and control.'

The FSA, however, said that Cantor acted swiftly in addressing these failings and that no one had lost as a direct result of the campaign.