IG Looks to Put the (Fat) Cat Among the Pigeons

The (Fat) Cat to “Check Your Fees”

The English language has any number of colourful phrases and idioms that delight native speakers, but infuriate those looking to learn our mother tongue as a second or subsequent language. (Even the phrase ‘mother tongue’ underlines how modern English has been influenced by other cultures, derived as it is from the Latin term lingua materna, meaning the language of one’s home, culture and origin.)

A term that is often used in relation to the financial services industry is ‘fat cats’. From its origins in the 1920s, when syndicated columnist Frank Kent wrote an essay entitled ‘Fat Cats and Free Rides’ to describe rich political backers, it now conjures images of portly, rich middle-aged men sitting around a table, drinking brandy and smoking cigars.

So, when IG decided to refer to its Fat Cat Index when launching its ‘Check Your Fees’ campaign, it was clear that a few feathers would be ruffled, even if senior management at leading platforms are more diverse than the male, pale and stale boardrooms of corporate America a century ago.

According to IG, most UK investors are paying hundreds of pounds more than they need to in platform fees each year.

More than half (52%) of investors surveyed were using the market’s 12 most expensive providers, and for an active investor using a stocks and shares ISA with one of these platforms, the cumulative fees would be £515 more per year than if they used one of the market’s low-cost alternatives.

For active investors using one of the four most expensive platforms, the claimed average annual overpayment rises to £711.

Almost half of the retail investors surveyed said they had never calculated their total fees, and a similar proportion reported being confused by investment fee jargon. Yet more than half were confident they were paying the lowest possible fees.

The research also found that nearly half of investors are hesitant to switch providers because of the admin involved. This inertia was particularly pronounced among older investors, with 43% of over-55s having been with the same provider for more than 10 years, and a third of this age group saying they are unlikely to switch.

We’re Gonna Trade Around the Clock Tonight

Whether we like it or not, extended trading hours are going to happen. It’s just a question of how and where they are offered.

24X National Exchange has already said it will offer 23-hour weekday trading of US equities in the second half of this year, and IG offers 24/5 trading on more than 100 of the most popular US stocks for UK investors. Meanwhile, DTCC subsidiary National Securities Clearing Corporation has committed to increasing clearing hours to support extended trading.

The latest initiative to push this process forward is NYSE’s decision to build a blockchain-based platform that will support trading of tokenised stocks and ETFs on a 24-hour basis. It is reported that the exchange hopes to have this platform up and running before the end of 2026.

24/5 Stock Trading. Now live on App. From Pre-Market to Overnight, trade seamlessly from Sun 8PM – Fri 8PM (ET). More ways to respond when the market moves 🔔Extended-hours may involve lower liquidity, higher volatility, wider spreads, limited data,… pic.twitter.com/toOpqZD0Qf

— Crypto.com (@cryptocom) January 29, 2026

Michael Blaugrund, vice president of strategic initiatives at ICE (which owns NYSE), describes the move as an evolution of NYSE’s trading capabilities that will allow for new types of investor accessibility and create new opportunities for retail investors to participate in stablecoin-funded markets.

ICE is also reportedly exploring the possibility of creating a new system for clearing round-the-clock trades. Rival exchange Nasdaq has been in dialogue with regulators for several months about allowing investors to trade digital representations of securities.

According to one senior financial services executive, these moves are evidence of the inevitability that tokenised trading will become the backbone of the US equities market.

His view is that, once exchanges can match in real time, the bottleneck shifts to cash, custody and regulatory treatment, and that these initiatives are less about tokenisation and more about recognising that the real constraint won’t be trading technology, but rather eligible digital cash and funding models at scale.

In this scenario, tokenised securities are the easy part — cash and controls are where the major challenges lie.

Small Shareholders Feel the Bite from Brewdog

The travails of a relatively small Scottish brewery might seem like small beer (pardon the pun) in comparison to recent stock price movements for Amazon, for example. But they are a salutary lesson in how a seemingly good news story can turn sour for retail investors.

Brewdog’s plucky newcomer ethos has attracted a loyal following over the last 20 years. The company played on this image during seven rounds of ‘equity for punks’, where hundreds of thousands of investors put around £75 million into the business.

However, falling sales and negative publicity around one of its co-founders have seen the company bring in consultants — a move expected to result in the sale of all or part of the business.

The private equity firm that bought into Brewdog in 2017 is expected to do very well from this process, given it is understood to have agreed preferential terms that would see it gain as much as four times its original £213 million investment.

LOST LAGER PINT CANS SPOTTED 🗣️🗣️Catch these beauties appearing in your local Premier, Londis, & Budgens stores. pic.twitter.com/55bOukOXNr

— BrewDog (@BrewDog) February 13, 2026

Prior to this investment, the company had Class A shares held by its founders and employees, and Class B shares allocated to those who participated in its crowdfunding. The deal with TSG Consumer Partners resulted in the creation of preference shares.

Investors had the option of cashing out when TSG bought its 22.3% stake, but the vast majority held tight and, if the eventual sale price is less than the amount guaranteed to TSG, there will be nothing left for the investors who put in between five hundred and several thousand pounds.

The £2 billion valuation at its last funding round in 2021 is now a distant memory and, even if a buyer were to value it at twice its most recent annual revenue of £357 million, it would be some way short of the figure that would see small investors get any money back.

This article was written by Paul Golden at www.financemagnates.com.

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