The fallout from last week's shock decision by the Swiss National Bank's (SNB) decision to abandon the franc's euro peg continues. 

UK Interdealer broker IG Groupconfirmed it had lost £30 million after the currency shot up by as much as 41% on 15 January following the removal of the peg. 

In a statement to the stockmarket, IG said the loss was split by £12 million of market exposure and £18 million of client exposure, which was held by 327 clients. 

Chief executive Tim Howkins said: 'While this [loss] was due to an unprecedented and unforeseeable degree of movement in a major global currency and only a few hundred clients were affected, we will seek to learn lessons from this incident which we can incorporate into our risk management approach going forward.' 

At the Swiss epicentre private bank Lombard Odier said it will effectively start charging people to hold cash by employing negative interest rates on balances of CHF100,000. This will accommodate the SNB's decision to cut in rates from -0.25% to -0.75%, which accompanied the franc announcement. 

'The resulting negative rate will represent the cost of ensuring maximum liquidity and security at a time of heightened market volatility,' the bank told the Financial Times.

Meanwhile Credit Suisse said it was unclear what total impact the peg removal would have on profit, saying this would be dependent on where the franc goes from here, while private bank EFG said earnings would be hit by 10%. 

There had also been concern over Europe's largest retail forex trader, Saxo Bank, until it said earlier this week it was able to meet regulatory capital requirements. However, it indicated a number of clients had 'insufficient margin collateral' to cover their franc losses, which will result in some shortfall for the bank. 

Meanwhile UBS downgraded its rating on Swiss stocks from overweight to neutral, warning the country's equities were facing profit falls of between 5 and 7% following the rapid appreciation of the franc. 

The shock has already claimed the life of hedge $830 million Miami-based hedge fund Everest Capital, while UK-based forex trader Alpari has hired KPMG to find a buyer after suffering huge losses. 

Alpari's US counterpart FXCM crashed by 90% on the day the peg was removed and needed a $300 million capital injection from parent Leucadia to survive.    

Aite Group wealth management senior analyst Javier Paz indicated there could be many more casualties, saying the full impact of the decision could take months to unravel. He likened the scenario to a nuclear explosion. 

In an email seen by Bloomberg Paz said: '[The removal of the peg] is closer to a nuclear explosion than a 1,000-kilogram conventional bond…The aftermath is like a black hole that can suck massive amounts of credit from currency trading as we have known it.' 

Paz was also quoted in the Financial Times, where he suggested regulators may need to be stricter in the way they police the forex market. 'The retailer brokers are a huge part of what makes  the markets go round in London but they can't be let loose indiscriminately,' he said. 

'The UK regulator will have to err on the side of caution. The reputation of the City is at stake.'

SPREADBETTING customers should reassess the risks they are taking with highly leveraged currency bets, in the wake of Alpari's collapse on the Swiss franc swings, rival firms said yesterday.

"Customers have to think about the risk disclosures, there is a risk associated with trading currencies. We try to educate the customer," said Oanda's Vatsa Narasimha.

"We offer 50-to-one leverage, which is the limit in the US."

By contrast, Alpari offered as much as 500-to-one.

"In recent years we have had requests from potential clients that wanted to build up large euro-to-Swiss-franc positions on very low margins but we rejected this business as being too risky for the client and too risky for ourselves," said Peter Cruddas, of CMC Markets.

"Regulators want financial markets that are sound, stable and resilient but there was little they could have done given the Swiss National Bank's timing and conduct in making their announcement.

City veteran David Buik said the crash shows traders have short memories: "One could be forgiven for feeling that markets have failed to learn from the fall-out in 2008."