SVS Securities - shut down?

dont_look_now

manorhouse said:

I have sent info to Degiro i believe they are expanding here in the UK fast and many trust them .

I'd imagine you are after a more stable home for your investments, after SVS. In that case, Degiro is perhaps a strange place to be looking.

Have you noticed the difference between Degiro's "Custody" and non-"Custody" accounts? The latter carry an extra kind of risk (compared to normal platforms, at least in the UK), because Degiro are allowed to lend out your shares (and retain the fees that generates). And the former are not quite so cheap.

And apart from that issue, the safe choice is surely to go for a company which is both regulated in the UK, and a relatively big player here.

johnburman

I agree that DEGIRO have special issues that need to be considered in addition to stock lending and where your money is held. My fear is dealing with a Dutch company and a Dutch regulator. I am not europhobic but as a former ICESAVE client I know how I felt thinking about making a claim on the Icelandic regulator when ICESAVE went under when the compensation fund stood at a few euros for x million clients. I actually think that the Icelandic regulator refused to declare the company insolvent to avoid the need to pay out to all the UK depositors. 

masonic

manorhouse said:

Thank you bowlhead and masonic sharing info always good , you two seem to know your stuff are you just ordinary posters or do have some connection to the site .

Nobody contributing to this thread has "some connection to the site".

manorhouse said:

I have sent info to Degiro i believe they are expanding here in the UK fast and many trust them .
( As i said they told me  50K )

As I think I've mentioned before, I don't trust them. In fact, they were one of 3 brokers I singled out and stated I would not use.

masonic

bowlhead99 said:

masonic said:

The Netherlands Investor Protection Scheme is limited to €20k. https://www.toezicht.dnb.nl/en/2/51-202210.jsp

Yes, that's why I said 'substantially the same' as Ireland.

Perhaps I should have quoted the intended target of my response (it wasn't you )

manorhouse

Thank you for the replies i am already trading with Degiro and had stopped buying with SVS i would withdraw money on sales and invest with the new one i had found.
Thinking i was in no rush was my mistake .
I hindsight they were a safer bet as they are still going they give me the impression they are very stricked  on risk not letting some AIMs on to platform and controlling individual holdings in certain aim stocks . 
SVS by contrast i came to believe were chiefly about raising money in AIM placings and flogging the shares they held "in principle" to there clients ( rubbish most of the time ) so much for UK regulates ?
Customer service not good at degiro but they seem intelligent nearly always having to refer to there risk department .
So no to your question "dont look know" i have said previously on this subject i was looking @ IB as they do JSE.
And i have far to much as it is with Degiro.
But not the 850k someone mentioned might be a problem with SVS ( this has increased 10 fold from posts back in the summer when posters were suggesting over 85k in some danger )
As i repeat good to get as much info and experiences of these various brokers as possible.
I would bet we are going to end up with interactive investor after what i posted yesterday .
Whats the view on them ?

masonic

johnburman said:

I agree that DEGIRO have special issues that need to be considered in addition to stock lending and where your money is held. My fear is dealing with a Dutch company and a Dutch regulator. I am not europhobic but as a former ICESAVE client I know how I felt thinking about making a claim on the Icelandic regulator when ICESAVE went under when the compensation fund stood at a few euros for x million clients. I actually think that the Icelandic regulator refused to declare the company insolvent to avoid the need to pay out to all the UK depositors. 

It was slightly worse than that, the Icelandic scheme guaranteed deposits at Icelandic branches, but not overseas branches, and argues this was legitimate because the objective of the scheme is the survival of the country's banking system and that excluding overseas clients from compensation was proportionate to that objective.

For that reason, I have a natural mistrust of all overseas compensation schemes.

masonic

manorhouse said:

But not the 850k someone mentioned might be a problem with SVS ( this has increased 10 fold from posts back in the summer when posters were suggesting over 85k in some danger )
As i repeat good to get as much info and experiences of these various brokers as possible.
I would bet we are going to end up with interactive investor after what i posted yesterday .
Whats the view on them ?

Those with several hundreds of thousands invested could opt to spread it around two or more UK providers.

I use Interactive Investor as my main S&S ISA provider. I wouldn't go as far as to recommend them, but they are ok, and cheap for my usage. They seem to have improved considerably in recent years. And after posting several years of losses, have finally grown to the point they have been able to post a profit in their last set of accounts.

dont_look_now

I would agree that Interactive Investor are looking like a conservative choice of platform, now that they are bigger and have posted a profit. Though I don't use them myself.

IB are very big, with the parent company in the USA, though I believe UK customers will deal with their UK subsidiary, which is regulated here. One wrinkle is potential issues with US Estate Taxes — AFAICR, this is not necessarily a problem, but is something that might need to be checked out.

I have the largest part of my investments with IWeb (a.k.a. Halifax Share Dealing). I didn't find actual figures for the amount of assets on their platform, but after reading the company's accounts I would guess at least £10bn — nowhere near the biggest but IMHO big enough to offer some reassurance. As (arguably) does having Lloyds Banking Group as the parent company (feel free to throw back your heads and laugh at this point ).

I also have investments with both Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell Youinvest, both of which are larger platforms, consistently profitable over many years, and now publicly quoted (and in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, respectively). So they are stand-alone platform businesses, with no larger parent company, but for that reason may be more cautiously managed.

johnburman

Discussing ICESAVE and the useful comment from masonic, I revisited the sad stroy and found this article https://nome.unak.is/wordpress/volume-12-no-1-2017/double-blind-peer-reviewed-article/icesave-dispute-case-study-crisis-diplomacy-credit-crunch/

I suggest it is compulsory reading for all those wishing to invest in overseas companies wiht overseas compensation funds and overseas regulators.  OK they were against the wall (an may have had no alternative) but the Icelandic Government shamefully supported their own domestic (and voting) depositors over those (non-voting) overseas ones.  Mind you the same hapened in the IoM (or was it Guernsey - or both) as well.    

manorhouse

dont_look_now said:

I would agree that Interactive Investor are looking like a conservative choice of platform, now that they are bigger and have posted a profit. Though I don't use them myself.

IB are very big, with the parent company in the USA, though I believe UK customers will deal with their UK subsidiary, which is regulated here. One wrinkle is potential issues with US Estate Taxes — AFAICR, this is not necessarily a problem, but is something that might need to be checked out.

I have the largest part of my investments with IWeb (a.k.a. Halifax Share Dealing). I didn't find actual figures for the amount of assets on their platform, but after reading the company's accounts I would guess at least £10bn — nowhere near the biggest but IMHO big enough to offer some reassurance. As (arguably) does having Lloyds Banking Group as the parent company (feel free to throw back your heads and laugh at this point ).

I also have investments with both Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell Youinvest, both of which are larger platforms, consistently profitable over many years, and now publicly quoted (and in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, respectively). So they are stand-alone platform businesses, with no larger parent company, but for that reason may be more cautiously managed.
THANKS AGAIN .
For that info on brokers i also have acc with the later three you mention bell & HL expensive and iweb make a load in fx rates if you buy USA shares for example.
Are Degiro profitable ? i never thought to consider that , but i see many went with ii when they were not .
You have made me think IB are a safer bet then degiro .
I will be well over the extra charge levies and  you seem to say GB protection .