A: Easy2Spreadbet uses the Finspreads platform so the spreads and markets available will be the same; in fact they share the same staff. Same goes for Capital Spreads and the numerous white-labelled London Capital Group brands like dealingdesk.co.uk, webtradeindia.com, chspreads.co.za, bullbearspreads.com, mdsspreads.com, finansbet.com, financialspreads.com and equityspreads.com...
My guess is it works like this: Two experienced punters have decided they can do some marketing and get clients signed up to trade CFDs, Forex or spreads. They approached Finspreads for a commission and wanted to label the finspreads platform. All work would be done by Finspreads except that the 'experienced traders' would market the new brand. In return they will receive a commission on the spread from Finspreads.
Surprised? If you go to the FSA web site and enter City Index's FSA regulation number 113942 and then Names at the top you will see the following alternative names for City Index:
Registered Name of City Index Limited
Actiorcfds
Ascension CFDs
AXG CFDs
Barclays Stockbrokers Advisory CFDs
Barclays Stockbrokers CFDs
Barclays Stockbrokers Financial Spread Trading
Barclays Stockbrokers Financial Spreads
Barclays Wealth CFDs
Blue Index CFDs
BS CFDs
Charles Stanley Fastrade Financial Spreads
Charles Stanley Financial Spreads
CREDO CFDs
Credo Spread Betting
Davy Direct CFDs
Davy Direct Financial Spread Trading
Easy2spreadbet
Eden Financial Derivative Trading
Eurospreads
Eurospreads CFD
Eurospreads CFD and spread trading
Eurospreads CFD en spread trading
Eurospreads spread trading
Fastrade Financial Spreads
Finspreads
FinspreadsCFD
Galvan Derivative Trading
Halifax CFDs
Hargreaves Lansdown CFD Trading Service
Hargreaves Lansdown CFDs
Hargreaves Lansdown Spread Betting
Hargreaves Lansdown Spreads
HL CFD Trading Service
HL CFDs
IFX Direct
IFX Markets
Impeo Markets
Interactive Investor CFD's
Interactive Investor Derivatives
Interactive Investor Spread Betting
Iweb CFDs
Kilik & Co Spreads
Killik & Co Trading Services (Spreads)
Merrion Stockbrokers CFDs
PartyMarkets
PartyMarkets.com
Pritchard Stockbrokers CFDs
Redmayne Bentley CFDs
owan Dartington Financial Markets
Rowan Dartington Financial Products
Self Trade CFD's
Self Trade Spread Betting
Selftrade CFDs
Selftrade CFDs and Spread Betting
Selftrade Spread Betting
Shark Trading
SVS Markets
Swiss eTrade Markets
TD Waterhouse CFDs
TD Waterhouse Financial Spread Betting
TwoWayTrade CFDs
City Index is an extremely well managed company with obvious connections in the city; and as you can see a whole lot of stockbrokers have signed up to use it as the basis of their own client CFD/spread betting service.
This is not uncommon and Capital Spreads will also do it if you have an active client base. If I were a UK broker and losing clients to CFDs and spreads I would actually do the same to protect my income stream and in fact this is what E*trade have done with EtradeSpreadBetting (a clone of Capital Spreads - same markets and spreads as both companies are run by London Capital Group).
Secondary Brands
London Capital Group: Capital Spreads, PaddyPowerTrader, eTrade, Tradefair, ProSpreads, t1pspreadbetting, FinancialSpreads, MDS spreads, Saxospreads.
Worldspreads: Victor Chandler Financials, PlatinumSpreads, Twowaymarkets.
CMC Markets: RBS, NatWest, Hoodless Brennan, 32 Red SpreadBet, Purple Lounge Markets
MFGlobal: LewisCharles...etc.
See here for a more complete list of white labels and promotions (pdf format) including the trade names of the spreadbetting companies (correct as at February 2011).
If I were someone like Vince Stanzione with 'thousands of happy clients' this would be a great little earner if you can direct all the new punters to trade with your firm. And same goes with World Spreads and its host of clones including ixspreads.com, alpeshpatelspreads.com, twowayspreads.com and portspreadbetting.com!
Wealth managers and traditional brokerage incumbents are also moving in with their own spread betting and CFD trading white label sites in response to their clients demands for such services. In such cases what happens is that either the broker brand is put on the front-end of say, the City Index platform so that this is hidden or if broker houses aren't worried about the branding issue, then CityIndex will underwrite the full risk. From a house broker's perspective, they avoid having to meet stringent capital requirements as the product is actually being provided by a third party and they do not have to build the platforms.
Personally, I can't see the benefit of adding another middleman in...
At one time I did consider using the Barclays CFD service, and thought, (before the credit crunch!! ) maybe so my account would be more secure, with the financial strength of Barclays behind it?? So I gave them a call (this was about 3/4 years ago) and asked them, if City Index were to go belly up (not that I'm suggesting that's going to happen) what would happen to my funds, would my account monies be backed by Barclays? They discussed amongst themselves for a while, and told me that my recourse would be to the Financial Service Compensation Scheme.
In these turbulent times, it's definitely worth knowing exactly who you're dealing with, and how financially robust they are. Personally, I mainly trade with listed providers like Capital Spreads and IG Index whom being exchange listed have to report everything to the public.
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