“With articles on spread betting regularly appearing in popular newspapers, the risks are being devalued.”There is little action that the industry regulator can take at present, although a source agreed that wording on contracts can be misleading. “I totally agree that it is not a credit limit at all,” she said. “All we can emphasise is that [clients] need to know what they are getting themselves into.”IG Index says that the credit limit operates like a trading limit – once the client goes over it, a margin call is made demanding immediate payment.”Clients need to prove they can afford to lose money and that they know the risks before they open an account,” says Paul Austin at IG Index. “You can lose more than your credit limit but as soon as it has been hit we immediately [alert the client].”RISKY BUSINESS, PAGE 16. A city broking firm is facing legal action from a former employee alleging that he was a victim of anti-semitic abuse while at the firm.

A city broking firm is facing legal action from a former employee alleging that he was a victim of anti-semitic abuse while at the firm.
It is understood that Laurent Weinberger has instructed his solicitors to write to Tullett & Tokyo Liberty following a recent incident in the broker’s London office.Mr Weinberger arrived late for work one Friday morning and, following an office convention, some of his colleagues challenged him to perform a forfeit.However, Mr Weinberger was angered by the repeated suggestion that he dress up in a Nazi uniform and he subsequently resigned. He has since taken a job at a rival City firm.It is understood that several members of the firm’s staff have since been questioned by its solicitors. Calls made to Tullett & Tokyo Liberty’s London office were forwarded to the firm’s solicitors, Magrath & Co, which declined to comment.Mr Weinberger, who now works for GFI, another broker, also declined to comment on the matter. He would not reveal the identity of his solicitor.In recent years, banks and brokers in London and New York have been rocked by a number of scandals involving alleged racial and sexual discrimination.Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank, was last year faced with two lawsuits from two black employees, alleging racial discrimination.Then this year, a female employee of the same bank filed a claim after alleging she had been excluded from all-male visits to golf clubs and nude and dancing clubs.Morgan Stanley is contesting all three claims.In response, City and Wall Street banks have adopted strict codes of conduct against even the slightest actions that could be deemed to discriminate against women or ethnic and other minority groups..

John Henry does not fit the popular image of a corporate matchmaker. But, though he is somewhat intense and intellectual, there is no disguising his zeal for linking buyers and sellers and so driving the inefficiencies out of markets. John Henry does not fit the popular image of a corporate matchmaker. But, though he is somewhat intense and intellectual, there is no disguising his zeal for linking buyers and sellers and so driving the inefficiencies out of markets.
In the 1990s, he created a company called Clean Air Capital Markets that profited from helping utilities to cut the cost of complying with environmental rules by trading “pollution credits” with more environ- mentally friendly businesses.Now he is set on shaking up the market for legal services.

A former lawyer himself, he claims corporate lawyers are among the last groups to be able to charge on a “cost-plus” basis. And he believes the internet is a powerful tool for changing that.He says the launch of eLawForum in the US earlier this year was successful enough to convince him that it could work in Europe too. He is starting in the UK but is planning to move quickly into France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.Essentially, the service is a website that operates as an online auction of legal services. Would-be clients describe the job they need doing and, via the website, seek bids from law firms interested in carrying out the work. Deals can be completed in as little as a few days or as long as several months, depending on the urgency or complexity of the job. The idea is that, by spreading the bidding process beyond the circle of firms that are usually retained, greater competition is introduced and costs come down. Mr Henry and his colleagues make their money by charging the client 2 per cent commission on the value of the work once it and a law firm agree to work together.Although the process starts online, Mr Henry acknowledges the importance of chemistry in picking professional advisers.