IG ISA recommends how friends operate？

To receive 50.Individual IG customers who have opened an account with a company for at least three months and live in the UK need to log in to the "My IG" platform, click on the "Settings" tab, select "Recommend Friends" from the menu option, and then invite their friends to open an account by sharing a unique referral link。

Is there a limit to the number of recommended friends？

Eligible IG customers can invite any number of friends and they will receive a £50 reward, with up to five friends who will open an IG account and trade at least once within three months of being recommended。The introducer may receive an award within 30 days of successfully registering the introducer。

Clients must have a personal or business relationship with the person referred and cannot recommend themselves。Nor can they recommend their own account or individual with a power of attorney。

Why offer the Referral Friend Program？

First of all, there is no better way to recommend it than by word of mouth from existing customers to their friends and family.。By rewarding clients who recommend members of their network, the broker is thanking them。

The reason that offering a "refer friends" program is more relevant is that it's a cheap way to generate new customers and open new accounts。Margin trading brokers cost around $1,500 or £1,220 to acquire a new CFD client, much of it for marketing and advertising.。

In this context, recommending friend promotions by sending emails, internal banner ads, or landing pages to existing customers is a very cost-effective way to expand new business, even including the cost of rewarding referrals。

Do other brokers offer referral friend programs？

In addition to IG Group, many brokers seem to have recommended friend programs such as Capital.com, Pepperstone, CMC Markets, and Spreadex。

Reports have said the FCA will crack down on promotions such as the Referral Buddy scheme as part of tightening rules on financial promotions and the suitability of risky investments.。In fact, there is also a press release on the FCA's own website, in which: "Companies also need to use clearer and more prominent risk warnings, and certain investment incentives, such as the 'recommended friend bonus," are now banned. "。

As a result, it's somewhat surprising that FCA-regulated brokers are still actively promoting the Referral to Friends program。

However, further inspection found that many of the promotions recommending friends had either been cancelled or were being offered by the companies' overseas branches, which are locally regulated and not regulated by the FCA.。

IG Group and Spreadex appear to be the exception, and in fact Spreadex is offering customers the chance to earn £300 through the Referral to Friends scheme.。However, to be fully rewarded, you must recommend / introduce five friends to open an account, deposit money and trade on that account, and then choose to be promoted to a professional, which in our opinion is a fairly high threshold。

This highlights another grey area in regulation, as UK customers shouldn't actually see promotions and advertisements from offshore brokers, but they do, not to mention the apparent contradiction between the FCA's press release about recommending friend offers and IG and Spreadex's UK promotions.。