What we do with your money

The essentials

What happens to the money I deposit with IG?

Your money is held in segregated bank accounts under trustee arrangements. This ensures that the cash remains yours, rather than ours. It also means that it’s easily identifiable as client money, so we and our creditors don’t have any charge, liens, or rights of set-off or retention over it.

We have a number of segregated bank accounts at a range of credit-worthy high street banks such as Barclays and Lloyds. We intentionally ensure that client money is split between a number of banks, and we’re not permitted to hold it all in one place.

What does IG do with my money and my assets?

Unlike banks, we’re required to separate client money and assets from our own resources. This means that we’re not allowed to use them in the course of our business activities, and that client money and assets are completely ring-fenced and protected in the unlikely event that we became insolvent.

We’re authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA have strict regulatory requirements, known as the client money and client assets rules (found in the Client Assets Sourcebook – CASS), which govern exactly what we can do and how we must do it.
The only clients whose money and assets aren’t treated like this are professional clients (like financial firms), or eligible counterparties who have signed a legal document explaining how their money and assets are held differently (this is known as ‘title transfer’).

Under the FCA’s CASS rules, we may also place client money in Qualifying Money Market Funds (QMMFs). This is mostly made up of low-risk investments like government bonds, and the primary objective of the fund is to maintain value. QMMFs offer an alternative way for us to hold your money without compromising on security. They’re a standard tool used by large financial institutions to diversify credit risk.

Where client money is placed in QMMFs, the units or shares in those QMMFs will be held as safe custody assets in accordance with the FCA’s CASS rules.

What happens to the shares that I buy at IG or transfer to IG?

Your shares are held in a segregated client accounts under nominee arrangements with approved custodians. This means that they’re easily identifiable as client assets and, as with cash, we and our creditors don’t have any charge, liens, or rights of set-off or retention over them. Your shares may be pooled with other clients’ shares, but never with shares owned by us.

What happens to my money or assets if IG goes into liquidation?

In the unlikely event of this happening, all our clients would have their share of the segregated money or segregated assets returned, minus the administrators’ costs in handling and distributing these funds.

Any shortfall of funds up to £85,000 may be compensated for under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is the compensation fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms. It’s designed by the UK government to act as a ‘safety net’, and usually covers private investors (retail clients) and small businesses if they’ve been clients of a financial services firm which becomes insolvent.

What happens to my money if one of the banks IG uses to hold client money goes into liquidation?

The losses would be shared by clients in proportion to the share of money held with the failed bank. Funds lost in this way may be compensated for under the FSCS up to a limit of £120,000 per person, per institution, subject to other balances held with the bank in question.

Find out more about what the FSCS covers and who is eligible to claim at their website www.fscs.org.uk.

This page should provide you with key information, but if you have any questions, you can email helpdesk@ig.uk.com or call 0800 4096789.