SVS Securities - shut down?

johnburman

For those staying with ITI ignore this post. For those leaving......
We need to transfer out of ITI ASAP. I have made my applications to the new brokers who have in turn told ITI and it has then gone into the ITI black hole. None of them to date has had any response from ITI. 
We need to tell the FCA. Problem. The FCA don't like individual complaints.. They say go to the FOS. I say, everyone report to the FCA on their phone line what is happening and get them to investigate. A regulated firm who does not answer its customer service line is not fit to be in business as a regulated firm surely? 
Likewise one that ignores requests for transfers out. The regulator should be told.if not how are they expected to know their is a problem? 

My2penneth

Ok, I've been in touch with the FCA this morning.  Some new contact details.

David Moss 0207 562 8087 (just tried ..no good!)

and a new email address

compliance@iticapital.com

also, the main contact number they have for ITI is 0207 562 8000 (their website gives 8001).

i'm just on the phone to the FCA again.... 

Madmel

I wish I had found this thread a year ago.  Please forgive my naivety but I have some questions that I would really appreciate your help with.

I tried to set up my account with ITI as described in the email.  It has my gender incorrect (I am female) but there is no way to correct this.  However, it did show my portfolio.  I only used xo once; all other trades were where a dealer phoned me and made "recommendations".  The last year has been really fraught and I am not at the stage in my life or career where I can devote time to online trading.  Therefore, I would like to transfer my portfolio to a broker of my choosing.  Can I do this?  Is there a way of doing it?  I am very very reluctant to send selfies or documents to a company with whom I have not chosen to have an sort of relationship.  I had not heard of HooYu (or whatever) and am concerned about ID theft.  Do I have to upload these documents - I never did with SVS?

Like another poster, I also had contact from SJS.  They sent me a follow-up email but when I asked which company I had been "mis-sold", they claimed they couldn't tell me.  I will leave it for now,

I am happy to go back to LC and ask, but thought someone here might be able to help me.  I have been doubting my sanity during the last year, so finding others in the same boat here this morning has brought literal tears of relief that I'm not the only one.  Thanks in advance

Monsieur_Bourse

It would appear that ITI 'don't like it up em', I received a reply to my e-mail within 10 minutes, with a grovelling explanation that they are having to deal with thousands of withdrawal requests, supposedly a BACS transfer was instigated yesterday. Maybe if ITI had heard of technology then this would not be an issue. When I sent the e-mail I used all capital letters in the subject box, and titled the e-mail, Complaint to be made to the Financial Ombudsman, this certainly seemed to have hit a nerve.

My2penneth, good to hear that you have contacted the FCA, I really think that the time has come for the little man to fight back. Whilst I have not yet instigated a request either on my account or my wife's account to transfer out of ITI, I had intended to trade a few shares on our accounts, and then instigate the transfer, so I cannot complain about a lack of action on the transfer front. But the fact that ITI have not complied with any transfer requests to new brokers must surely be breaching FCA rules.

Does anybody think we now have a case to complain to the FCA about the time it is taking to transfer in our shares and cash from SVS?

I would love to know if there is a forum in China with similar comments, regarding the lack of service they have received!

My2penneth

My2penneth said:

Ok, I've been in touch with the FCA this morning.  Some new contact details.

David Moss 0207 562 8087 (just tried ..no good!)

and a new email address

compliance@iticapital.com

also, the main contact number they have for ITI is 0207 562 8000 (their website gives 8001).

i'm just on the phone to the FCA again.... 

I tried the David Moss telephone number. It just "beeped" and that was it. The lady at the FCA tried the number and got a voicemail saying the number was busy.  I think Mr Moss works in Complaints.....so, I can actually believe that he might be busy!

I spoke to 2 people at the FCA (Rachel...pronounced like Dell Boy's "Rackel" and Rachida (I think that was the lady's name)). Both very helpful. 

She said to try these 3 new contact details.

(She also gave me an email address for Walbrock.....which was the old company before ITI)

FairDinkum

My 10 investments with SVS 'onboarded' last week and the list of investments and numbers of each were correct. The unit values were about right and the total value of each holding as well as the overall total were also mathematically correct. Today, one of the shares now shows a total value of £12,000 less than it should be althought the number of shares is correct and the total of all holdings is about £90,000 less than it really is!

This means that people at ITI are poking around manually in the database (the temporary one in which they have dumped our data). I had a spark of hope thinking that they had finally got round to migrating ("manually line by line" as I think I read in another post) and that my Phoenix account (pending) would come to life some time today - but so far, just the errors above - Phoenix is still pending.

I happen to know quite a lot about data migration in the financial world and the one thing you would never do is poke around manuallly or transfer data line by line from one system to another. It can be a complicated job but if you have 2 databases and you have authority to access each of them, it is, in principle, a straightforward IT job to transfer the data coherently from one to another with a program or a series of database commands. This process would be repeatable so you could perform it automatically any number of times thus enabling thorough audit of the transfer for which further tools would be produced. By repeating the transfer/audit sequence a few times you finish up with the right data in the right place.

There was plenty of time for ITI to do this before July 22/23. 

No idea what to do now!

My2penneth

You can transfer from ITI to another broker of your choice. Fill in the transfer request with your new broker...just don;t hold your breath.

Oh, if you hold shares that need a completed W8-BEN form (US companies), I would make sure that you have completed a W8-BEN with your broker of choice  prior to transfer. HAs anyone submitted such a form to ITI capital or maybe people don't hold US shares other than via collectives funds such as ETF/ITs ?


 

My2penneth

David Moss 0207 562 8087 is Head of Compliance (email address below).
compliance@iticapital.com
That's the email address to contact with you concerns and complaints.

johnburman

I am pleased that people are contacting the FCA.  Even more pleased that ITI are starting to take matters seriously. reading "...with a grovelling explanation that they are having to deal with thousands of withdrawal requests, supposedly a BACS transfer was instigated yesterday." 

There is clearly something VERY wrong at ITI or with their systems.  As I - and others -  have said they have had literally months to prepare for/sort out this transfer, and it is a complete shambles.  But they are a small specialised broker, with limited (and not enough) staff.

I want out.  But their service was always different from SVs and their charges were always going to be higher than SVS and so they must have expected a large number of 'leavers.'  So how come that they can't cope?  What did they expect - cash balances are wrong; you can't trade; they don't answer the 'phone, but the one good thing is that (if you can get to the right bit of their website) the lines of stock are accurate (well not the pricing, the quantity of stock).

We need to ask th FCA to ensure that the transfers out are dealt with quickly or else automatic compensation is offered.

pafpcg

pafpcg said:

At last!  A response from ITI a few hours short of exactly seven days since I submitted my closure request using the "non-boarding" transfer-straight-out procedure.  Unfortunately, the message, received by email and in the Support Centre list of tickets, doesn't say how I can proceed! 

Here's the Support Centre ticket:
Date: 11 Aug 2020   
Type: Request    
Category: Closure/ Withdrawal Details Submitted (Doc Based KYC)    
Status: Details Required    
Remarks: Kindly complete the withdrawal application along with providing a photo ID and a recent bank statement.    

So where is this withdrawal application form and how do I submit it?  Can anyone help?

Updating my own query about the transfer-straight-out procedure:  I just needed to have more patience!

When I logged-in this morning, the ITI system had updated overnight and automatically directed me to the "Submit Closure" procedure, asking for details of the bank account for cash funds and new broker for securities which were automatically loaded into a PDF which I could download, sign and re-scan to be uploaded with identity documents.

My ITI account is now a true "black box" - when I log-in now it just says "Closure in progress" - no cash balance or holdings.