Reid Moseley was unhappy with the meagre C$13-a -month interest his C$50,000 nest-egg was earning on deposit at one of Canada’s big banks. So the retired Calgary schoolteacher complained early last year to a friend who was an investment adviser at Canaccord Capital, a non-bank securities dealer.

“He said: ‘I’ve got this nice little 30-day rollover thing’,” Mr Moseley recalls. “He told me it was as good as gold. He said it would pay a lot better than $13 a month.”