WorldSpreads Group
| Type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial Services |
| Trades as | LSE:WSPR |
| Founded | 2000 [1] |
| Website | http://www.worldspreads.com |
WorldSpreads Group plc is a financial services company which capitalizes on financial spread trading across a number of different markets and jurisdictions to its clients in Dublin, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Cape Town and Kuala Lumpur. [2]
Controversy
Worldspreads in administration.
Worldspreads collapsed on 19 March 2012 and entered administration.[3]
On that date it appeared that there was only £16.6m of the £29.7m of customer money left that should have been in the business to cover customer balances.
Customer accounts are often not segregated, kept separate, in the derivatives markets which means investors in failed companies like MF Global and now Worldspreads, will likely lose a significant proportion of the balance of their trading accounts.
In a trading update on 28 February 2012 their CEO Conor Foley stated the group maintained a “strong balance sheet.” However the update was a profits warning suggesting a benign market and investor profits were hitting their business. This in turn suggested that the company was not hedging its bets in the market and acting as its own market maker, losing money when its clients made profits. This is a risky position for any financial company, one where their ‘bank can be broken’ by the good fortune of their customers. As spread betters pay tax on their hedging profits some spread betters prefer to minimise hedging where possible and some go without this insurance completely.
The demise of the company and the recent departure of the company's finance director was suggested in a Reuters article as not unconnected and that irregularities emerged soon after his exit.[4]
Worldspreads is said to have over 5000 spread betting customers.
Directors [5]
- Lindsay McNeile - Non-Executive Chairman
- Conor Foley - Chief Executive Officer
- Michael Foley - Chief Commercial Officer
- Niall O’Kelly - Chief Financial Officer
- Geoff Langham - Chief Operating Officer
- Dominic Bacon - General Counsel, Group Head (Compliance) & Company Secretary
- Andrew Palmer - Marketing Director (WorldSpreads Ltd)
- BK Teh - Head (Systems Development)
References
- ↑ History
- ↑ Company Overview
- ↑ Appointment of Joint Special Administrators
- ↑ WorldSpreads enters administration owing clients millions
- ↑ Directors
