Cantor FitzGerald, one of the main providers of CFDs to the Irish market, has tightened up its lending criteria.

The move will see investors who fail to provide proof of their ability to sustain losses charged 1.25 per cent more than those who provide an audited statement of their assets. Sources in the Irish market say the move is unrelated to recent stock market losses, but follows pressure from Cantor's head office in New York. It is understood the US office has assumed responsibility for the CFD business and wants to price it similarly to the trade in the US.

"The business in Ireland has just got much bigger than they had expected. They are refinancing their risk in CFDs and looking for more transparency," one source said.

Another market source noted that many Irish people had what he described as "an almost philosophical objection" to providing such information and would look to other CFD providers.

IG Index, the leading British financial spread-betting firm, is the other main provider of such products in the Irish market, although Dresdner Kleinwort Benson is understood to supply CFDs to Irish institutional investors and the top end of the private client market.