Not upheld: Other regulated complaint complaint against Capital Com (UK) Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr I complained that Capital closed 16 of his CFD positions without knowledge or permission on 13 October 2022 due to a technical platform outage, resulting in losses that he claimed could have been avoided. Capital's price provider suffered a 15-minute systems outage during which the underlying index fell sharply, causing Mr I's account margin to drop from 108% to 42%, triggering automatic position closure under FCA regulations and the agreed terms. The ombudsman found that Capital acted fairly and reasonably in closing the positions to prevent further losses, that the sharp market fall (not the outage) caused the margin breach, and that Capital fairly compensated Mr I by crediting £1,903.14. The complaint was not upheld, though Capital's offer of £100 compensation was upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Capital acted in accordance with FCA regulatory obligations and its agreed terms and conditions. The Leverage and Margin policy explicitly permits closure of positions without notification when a sudden market movement causes the margin level to drop from above 100% to below 50%. The ombudsman was satisfied that the sharp market fall (not the 15-minute price feed outage) caused the margin level to drop from 108% to 42%, and that this fall happened too quickly for Mr I to deposit funds or close positions. Capital fairly mitigated Mr I's losses by crediting his account with £1,903.14 to reflect the price before the systems incident. The August 2022 pricing error benefitted Mr I and was not pursued. The ombudsman acknowledged Mr I's frustration but noted that the closure was in his best interests to prevent further losses, and that CFDs are inherently high-risk instruments.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website