SVS Securities - shut down?

masonic

My2penneth said:

I thought it was the responsibility of iWeb to get the assets within 30 days in normal times (hey, Covid 19) ? 

I think the 30 calendar day time limit is really only supposed to be for transfers in cash. Stock transfers were specifically excluded from the time limits at it was acknowledged these take longer. However, it's there in black and white now and there's no reason why breach of that 30 day time limit cannot be used as grounds for a complaint.

6-8 weeks is the industry average, in the absence of Covid 19 related delays. You are correct that if iWeb is managing your transfer, it is them to whom you would normally complain. That's why they had previously stopped accepting transfer requests during lockdown.

johnburman

17 weeks is terrible. As I said I'm giving ITI 31 days to transfer before my complaint to the FOS goes in. 

masonic

johnburman said:

17 weeks is terrible. As I said I'm giving ITI 31 days to transfer before my complaint to the FOS goes in. 

You'll be wasting your time as FOS will ask you on what date you complained to ITI, and on what date you received ITI's letter of deadlock. If the answer to the first question is less than 8 weeks ago and the answer to the second question is 'not yet' then you'll be advised to give ITI more time to consider your complaint before bringing it to the FOS and will need to resubmit your complaint at the appropriate time.

johnburman

I'm sure that what the FOS will say...and I will say that ITI do not answer my requests and ignore me - so there is no deadlock/action/apology.  And the fact they do that is another ground of my (new) complaint.  Such fun. 

johnburman

My2penneth - same as me.  the point for the posters on this forum is when did the new broker send the request to ITI?  ITI did it quite quickly but HL delayed a week  (I am talking 14 days ago).

Monsieur_Bourse

I would like to also thank JohnB for contacting the FCA laying out the plight of ex SVS clients.

I must admit now that I am quite pessimistic that we are going to achieve a satisfactory outcome from the transfer of our shares and cash to ITI. We are approaching the 4 week milestone since we were supposedly to be reunited with our shares and cash after 12 months of waiting. As ITI do everything manually I just cannot see how anything can be sorted out any time soon. Presumably it is someones job either as part of their day or all of the day just to enact cash withdrawals, when any mainstream broker does this automatically. Even if somehow they finally get our Phoenix accounts up and running, how will they then execute maybe the best part of 20,000 clients wanting to transfer out of ITI to another broker, again all done manually not electronically. All this with no revenue for ITI only costs.

The other fear is that the brokers that we want to transfer to become snowed under and they themselves have to put a temporary stop on transferring in new accounts. Sadly I think that ITI could well go into administration themselves, and then goodness know where that will leave us.

I guess the silence will continue to be deafening again this week with no updates on progress (or lack of) from either Leonard Curtis or ITI. Maybe I am being too pessimistic but now I am holding out little hope.

masonic

johnburman said:

I'm sure that what the FOS will say...and I will say that ITI do not answer my requests and ignore me - so there is no deadlock/action/apology.  And the fact they do that is another ground of my (new) complaint.  Such fun. 

If you have given ITI 8 weeks to resolve your complaint, and they have ignored it in that time, then the FOS will take up your complaint. If you have not given ITI 8 weeks to respond to your complaint then they will not, but they have been known to get in touch with a firm to tell them to pull their finger out.

Based on what you have told us so far, you have not yet submitted a formal complaint about ITI's handling of your transfer request. If you do as you stated in your earlier post (give ITI exactly 30 days to complete the transfer, and then on day 31 complain directly to the FOS without first complaining to ITI), then the FOS will help you put your complaint to ITI, then tell you to come back with a letter of deadlock or after 8 weeks, which at that stage will be some time in November. Which means it will be unlikely that the FOS will have closed off your complaint before the end of this year.

coyrls

For reference, my complaint to the FOS in September 2016 was settled in my favour in December 2018.

Danie6

What now are the chances of this fiasko dragging on for another year or two? This is something I can not afford. Is it not a logical option to opt for a reverse transfer back to LC?

masonic

coyrls said:

For reference, my complaint to the FOS in September 2016 was settled in my favour in December 2018.

Wow, that's pretty slow. In contrast, I made a formal complaint to my S&S ISA provider at the beginning of July 2015, it was acknowledged the following day but I didn't have a response by early September, so I referred to the FOS. My complaint was picked up by the FOS 2 weeks later, and settled in my favour in mid-October (the same year) - so under 4 months from the date of initial complaint.

The timescales were similar when I complained about TSB following their IT disaster in 2018.