Small brokers see red at easy ride for big firms

The chief executives of broking firms being clobbered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme's extra £233 million levy are getting pretty angry.

Their early representations to the FSCS and the Financial Services Authority appear to have met with little sympathy.

They are particularly annoyed that, while in many cases they are being told to pay about a fifth of their annual profits, major firms - which are treated as universal or investment banks rather than brokers - seem to be escaping relatively painlessly.

At the same time, perfectly good firms are being tarred with the same brush as the rogues who went bust and for whom they are now paying.

One of them told me: "We still go by the old Stock Exchange 'dictum meum pactum' - my word is my bond. Some of them seem to prefer Dr Spooner's version of 'cluck defiance'.