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Investor protection

Investing in shares and other financial instruments is, by nature, risky. If the business goes into liquidation your investment can become worthless. This is a risk all investors have to face. However, there are risks investors should not have to face: firstly, the risk of incompetence by advisers or financial service firms with control over investors’ money; secondly, the risk of fraud. There is an extensive system of regulations designed to protect you from the unscrupulous, ignorant and incompetent. There are also systems to enable you to claim compensation should you suffer. This chapter describes both the protection systems and the fall-back compensation systems, as well as giving some advice on steps you can ...

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