SVS Securities - shut down?

masonic

desertorchid123 said:

3) These were likely mis-sold so (only possibly) will come under an FCA compensation

There is no "FCA compensation". Presumably you mean FSCS compensation. To access this you would need to make a complaint about the bad advice you received (which you should expect to be ignored by LC), and after 8 weeks escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It would perhaps be unwise to wait until the bonds mature/formally default before raising your complaint. There are time limits associated with complaining to the FOS, normally 3 years from when you should reasonably have known there were grounds for complaint, and it has been almost 1 year so far.

desertorchid123

masonic said:

desertorchid123 said:

3) These were likely mis-sold so (only possibly) will come under an FCA compensation

There is no "FCA compensation". Presumably you mean FSCS compensation. To access this you would need to make a complaint about the bad advice you received (which you should expect to be ignored by LC), and after 8 weeks escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It would perhaps be unwise to wait until the bonds mature/formally default before raising your complaint. There are time limits associated with complaining to the FOS, normally 3 years from when you should reasonably have known there were grounds for complaint, and it has been almost 1 year so far.

Thanks good advice, yes I meant FSCS. 

t237

lelamania said:

desertorchid123 said:

masonic said:

desertorchid123 said:

Is anyone else a holder of any of the corporate finance bond issues? They have been valued at 0 on the client statement which is seemingly primarily because they were delisted last August and therefore no market value can be attributed. However, despite the fact that it has been paying interest, suggestive of an ongoing asset value,  I was wondering what the status of these investments actually was. If, in fact any value now exists in them.....

SVS defaulted on their mini-bonds. It is not expected that at the end of the administration there will be any money with which to make any payment to unsecured creditors, such as the bondholders.

Yes, I have been made aware of the the SVS bonds being worthless. I was just wondering about the other bond investments recommended by SVS. They have been mentioned in previous literature from LC. It seems one of the reasons FCA intervened was due to the risk profile not being accurately portrayed and some dubious loan arrangements made with the bond issuer. Hopefully LC will have some answers.

Hi DesertorChild,

Did you make any progress with understanding this? My dad has only just received his May statement, and we were all in quite a shock to see the size of the losses (we've seen a reduction of about 2/3 to his pension pot!). I tried contacting CorporateFinanceBonds but I am yet to hear back. Additionally, the funds were de-listed on the 6th November, but the last interest payment received was 4th November. Have you had interest payments after this date?
Thanks in advance!

Thanks for your post. My mother is in the same boat having been pressurised into investing in CFB over the phone by SVS staff. I saw on the FSCS website that they will open to claims relating to these bonds soon so there is a glimmer of cope. Please keep us updated if and when you get any news.

lelamania

t237 said:

lelamania said:

desertorchid123 said:

masonic said:

desertorchid123 said:

Is anyone else a holder of any of the corporate finance bond issues? They have been valued at 0 on the client statement which is seemingly primarily because they were delisted last August and therefore no market value can be attributed. However, despite the fact that it has been paying interest, suggestive of an ongoing asset value,  I was wondering what the status of these investments actually was. If, in fact any value now exists in them.....

SVS defaulted on their mini-bonds. It is not expected that at the end of the administration there will be any money with which to make any payment to unsecured creditors, such as the bondholders.

Yes, I have been made aware of the the SVS bonds being worthless. I was just wondering about the other bond investments recommended by SVS. They have been mentioned in previous literature from LC. It seems one of the reasons FCA intervened was due to the risk profile not being accurately portrayed and some dubious loan arrangements made with the bond issuer. Hopefully LC will have some answers.

Hi DesertorChild,

Did you make any progress with understanding this? My dad has only just received his May statement, and we were all in quite a shock to see the size of the losses (we've seen a reduction of about 2/3 to his pension pot!). I tried contacting CorporateFinanceBonds but I am yet to hear back. Additionally, the funds were de-listed on the 6th November, but the last interest payment received was 4th November. Have you had interest payments after this date?
Thanks in advance!

Thanks for your post. My mother is in the same boat having been pressurised into investing in CFB over the phone by SVS staff. I saw on the FSCS website that they will open to claims relating to these bonds soon so there is a glimmer of cope. Please keep us updated if and when you get any news.

That's awful, sorry to hear that. I will certainly keep you posted with any update. For what it's worth, here are my findings/thoughts:
- Leonard Curtis have tried to value the CFB funds, but since there have been no interest payments for a while (since November from what I can tell), they have assumed that they are now worth £0. Whether this is the case, who knows, but I am somewhat hoping that ITI Capital can investigate and shed some light on the situation. Someone speculated to my dad that they may have refused to pay interest following the delisting to SVS customers because they could get away with it. Wishful thinking probably, but I'd personally be surprised if all of the bonds within the funds (which I believe they are?) have defaulted. Albeit, I'm an ordinary Joe with little understanding of how this stuff works.
- We are pursuing a a FSCS claim through a solicitor firm (at outrageously high fees...). We are hoping we can put in multiple claims again the various bodies that have misadvised.
- I have phoned CorporateFinanceBonds countless times, each time being promised a call back. They are yet to do it, but I can be a persistent bar steward.

Thanks to desertorchild and masonic for their help. I appreciate it.

masonic

lelamania said:

- We are pursuing a a FSCS claim through a solicitor firm (at outrageously high fees...). We are hoping we can put in multiple claims again the various bodies that have misadvised.

I don't understand the involvement of a solicitor firm. The FSCS has been set up such that it is immune to legal action. The process of complaining, referring that complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and obtaining a legally enforceable decision against SVS that is eligible for FSCS compensation is simple, free, and requires no legal advice to be sought. The FSCS will pay out on such claims once their involvement in the Special Administration process has been concluded, which they expect to be next month.

lelamania

masonic said:

lelamania said:

- We are pursuing a a FSCS claim through a solicitor firm (at outrageously high fees...). We are hoping we can put in multiple claims again the various bodies that have misadvised.

I don't understand the involvement of a solicitor firm. The FSCS has been set up such that it is immune to legal action. The process of complaining, referring that complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and obtaining a legally enforceable decision against SVS that is eligible for FSCS compensation is simple, free, and requires no legal advice to be sought. The FSCS will pay out on such claims once their involvement in the Special Administration process has been concluded, which they expect to be next month.

Yep and I am in no way saying it was the right thing to do. We had conversations with the FSCS soon after the SVS entered administration and the roadmap of how to get compensation was not made clear to us. Maybe we panicked into doing something about it too early, especially when we are talking about an entire pension pot. As the process has evolved it has become clearer that the process will be simple, as you say. Nevertheless, we have been somewhat sold the idea that the solicitor will put in multiple claims against the various parties involved with the advice (therefore not limiting us to £85k), and we are dealing with a defined benefit pension being liquidated which sounds like an issue in itself.

masonic

lelamania said:

Nevertheless, we have been somewhat sold the idea that the solicitor will put in multiple claims against the various parties involved with the advice (therefore not limiting us to £85k), and we are dealing with a defined benefit pension being liquidated which sounds like an issue in itself.

If the solicitor can successfully claim against companies that are not either immune to litigation or insolvent, then yes you might be able to extract some value from their involvement.

Do you really mean "defined benefit" pension? This would suggest your employer or a sponsor operated the pension scheme, the pension trustees are responsible for investing in these financial instruments, and it is essentially their problem (fingers crossed you're not a trustee of a DB pension scheme caught up in this mess). A DB pension provider has an obligation to pay a sum of money to each scheme member in each year of retirement regardless of the performance of any investments held by them. If the DB scheme becomes underfunded and the sponsor cannot recapitalise it then it would either be sold off to another insurer or the Pension Protection Fund would step in and take control of the fund and pay out 100% of the benefits accrued for those who've reached the normal retirement age for the scheme, or 90% for those who've not. Pension recipients would not have a claim for bad advice because they would not be involved in management of the pension fund.

ascension92

So we have 3 months from the settlement date, being 23 Jul 20 to move from ITI if we wish without charges, including "custody"? Views please.

My2penneth

It says 6 months in today's update. ( cut & paste from the letter)
"(a) clients switching to a different broker within six months of the Settlement Date will not be required to pay exit fees to ITI, and
(b) for a period of three months from the Settlement Date, fees payable under ITI's terms of business will be equal to the fees paid by clients for comparable services under the Company's terms of business as at 5 August 2019.

My2penneth

As near as spit a year to regain custody...