Letting customers rack up losses is bad for business

Outlook

The stock market paid Tim Howkins, the boss of spread-betting giant IG Group, the ultimate compliment by marking the shares down after the company announced his retirement. On his watch, IG achieved impressive growth, but its reputation took a knock after the Swiss franc was decoupled from the euro, losing the company £12m in revenue and £15m in bad debts, much of which won’t be recovered.

Some of those debts were incurred by people of relatively modest means: teachers, even concert pianists. While they should take responsibility for their actions, it is still disturbing that IG allowed them to rack up unlimited losses trading in currencies.

If nothing else, it’s bad for business. This is now an issue for Mr Howkins’s successor to grapple with.