The Equiniti Scam

oneye14

Well done Penny !

Did you provide this 'indemnity thing' even though there was no charge ?

PennyPurple

Well, I signed the indeminty form, if that's what you mean. If I recall correctly that's just me saying the share cert didn't arrive. But didn't send any money with it.

oneye14

PennyPurple


Have PM'd you

oneye14

In letter dated 27 July 2012 state

".. our website isclear on the matter of our regulatory status."

"..and at the foot of all our letters."

An immediate reply asked where it stated Equiniti Ltd was not regulated.
The same reply asked where details of the Indemnity Insurance Company was - had got lost in the post.

They have yet to reply.

oneye14

The Financial Services Ombudsman has recently confirmed that:-
- Not only Equiniti Ltd is not regulated but also
- Equiniti Financial Services Ltd and their employees are not regulated when dealing with share issues.

Now it's not clear what is defined as 'share issues', but it does suggest the information on websites
- http://www.equiniti.com
- http://www.shareview.co.uk

regarding regulation may in fact be misleading.
I intend to contact the Equiniti Group on this to allow any website corrections to take place.

STEFANOS4784

I am also currently in this situation. My shares are worth a fair bit and they are trying to charge me about £130 quid for a 'replacement' certificate even though I never received one in the first place.

Anyone had any further joy? Or any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

malkyh

The indemnity issue has been a long winded battle between investors and registrars for a long time now.

Most Company documents state clearly that a share certificate is posted at the shareholders own risk. I can't see any logical way that a large registrar posting hundreds of certificates per day can possibly obtain proof of postage for each one. It's not possible.

It is not the registrar who decides on what method of posting is used. The registrar is working to the rules of the company it is servicing and a company would have a hard job convincing its board to switch to expensive mailing methods for such a small number of missing certificates.

I used to work for a one of the large registrars and this argument has been going on for years.

One of the most awkward situations is the 'non receipt' of a document. Having to tell a shareholder that they will have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for something they never received in the first place is not a pleasant conversation. What normally happens in this case is the shareholder complains direct to the company they hold the shares in and now and again the company agree to pay the fees associated in the interest of investor relations.

Reaper

malkyh wrote: »

The registrar is working to the rules of the company it is servicing and a company would have a hard job convincing its board to switch to expensive mailing methods for such a small number of missing certificates.

The argument would be valid if they paid for the small number of ones that go missing. In that case they can make a sensible economic choice which is the best route. However as long as it is the company that saves money by using a cheap mailing method and the customer that pays when it fails there is no incentive to change.

malkyh

A few companies have adopted an indemnity waiver approach which means the registrar has instructions from the company that an indemnity countersignature is not required. The big Registrars do not like this though as it goes against icsa best practice.

Also, it's becoming more common for companies to adopt an amnesty policy, especially in the case of new share offers where if a certificate is reported not received within a 3-6 month (varies) timescale then a duplicate will be provided at no cost to the shareholder.

However, if you have lost your certificate then you are not covered by this.

MMath91

I came across this and I see this is an old thread but there seems to be a lot of confusion over lost certificates and how to get new ones. I used to work in the lost certificates dept of Equiniti, although about 2 years ago now, but I can't imagine it's changed much.
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