IG Group takes aim at incumbents with online stockbroking service
SPREADBETTING firm IG Group is taking aim at Hargreaves Lansdown and Barclays Stockbrokers with the launch of an online stockbroking service today.
IG, founded 40 years and with a majority of the market, has spent between £2.5m to £3m developing the service over the past two years in a bid to crack the lucrative market.
There are currently about 100,000 spreadbetters in the UK, but the number of people with an online stockbroking account is much larger, at about 750,000 users.
“It’s a much bigger audience and we think at the moment that audience is pretty poorly served,” chief executive Tim Howkins said. “The online stockbroking world is currently pretty primitive.”
IG is launching its bid to crack the market today, offering live prices on about 4,500 stocks.