Back in July 2015, Financial Spreads, the UK spread betting and CFD trading operator, wrote to their clients to say that they could no longer offer a trading service. Today Finance Magnates can reveal that Financial Spreads has now re-opened for business.
Financial Spreads was operating as a ‘trading name’ of Finsa Europe Ltd (Finsa). Following a review of this ‘trading name’ business model, Finsa felt they had to cease working with their partners and develop a more robust regulatory framework for these relationships instead.
Nevertheless, Financial Spreads did make the decision to continue working with Finsa and the new regulatory status was approved by the Financial Conduct Authority on 14 September 2015.
Financial Spreads is now a trading name of Clear Investor Ltd. which is an appointed representative of FINSA Europe Ltd., company no: 07073413. FINSA Europe Ltd. is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, registered number 525164.
No Complaints
According to Adam Jepsen, the Founder of Financial Spreads, there were no complaints against Financial Spreads.
“I’ve been running Financial Spreads for nearly 10 years and in that time I’ve not heard of a single client complaint to either the ombudsman or the regulator about Financial Spreads. We have always prided ourselves on operating a transparent and fair service.”
At the time of the closure, Financial Spreads could do little but return client funds.
“Telling clients who were trading day-in day-out with Financial Spreads that we could not take any new trades was very difficult but it was also incredibly inconvenient for our clients. All we could do to help clients was to ensure the swift return of their funds,” said Adam Jepsen.
New Platform
Adam Jepsen, Founder, Financial Spreads
As well as seeking a more robust level of Regulation , and the extra due diligence that comes with it, Financial Spreads took the opportunity to carry out a complete platform upgrade.
The platform has new advanced charts, a new pricing engine designed to reduce the number of trade rejections in fast moving markets, and a host of other improvements such as netted margin when trades are hedged.
It has been important to keep the user-friendly nature of the platform: “When your business is presented with a challenge, you need to pick yourself up and work on something positive. In this case, we’ve spent a lot of time working with Finsa on the new platform.
“Having said that, I’ve always subscribed to the theory of ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. While there are a lot of improvements, it’s been particularly important to keep the familiar and user-friendly layout,” continued Jepsen.
