SVS Securities - shut down?

Jamesram

collin618 said:

Does anyone have an email address for individuals at Leonard Curtis please

  Try John.Smith@leonardcurtis if you have the correct John Smith name, or you can use SVS@leonardcurtis and just put For attention of *********- they are not a huge outfit at the SVS administration

Josl

shawdon said:

Extract from Rahul reply earlier giving details of "up to 4-5 brokers" they are hopefully now actioning transfer requests for. Interestingly, following my email to Rahul i now had my first reply from David Moss since the 28th August, having ignored by previous 15 emails!:
Apologies for the delays you have experienced. I’ve asked our Operations Manager to look into this and give you an update by COB today. I do know we are in the process of agreeing bulk transfers with HL as they are one of the 4-5 brokers to which we are getting frequent transfer requests.

 

Kind regards,

 

Rahul

He's sending a generic email to everyone. I got the same email today from him. Word to word.

johnburman

Josl and others.  Why are you still contacting LC?  The Distribution Plan was agreed by the Court, the Creditors committee and the FCA.   LC did all they had to do.  Do you have *evidence* that LC knew it woudl be a shambles?  The supposition yes - we all knwo that - but evidence NO.
Did they choose somebody 'suitable'?  For the FCA yes.  For the creditors of SVS yes, for us poor clients no.  But how were they to knwo that at the time?  Where is the *evidence*?  

and if you say ITI is crooked - where is your evidence.  Where is yoru statement ot the Polcie or FCA!.  There is no evidence I know of.  Yes ITI specialised in derivatives and FX not shares and in particular not XO shares for the mass market. but they were buying in expertise.  Where we must blame LC (although it is ITI) is that there were not and are not enough staff to deal with the transfers/onboarding of new clients. 

Why LC; why FCA; why LSE  and why ITI did you bid for and win 20k new clients when you had the staff to deal with 3k on a good day - and far fewer on a bad day, which it is?  

We need the transfers done and done ASAP.

Josl

Michael_Reynolds I researched ITI Capital in June when LC informed us of their selection. Initially, I found their website was too generic looked a lot like websites located in unregulated countries, site had generic T&C, did not offer services suitable for my portfolio, most importantly missing crucial information such as list of charges (which are displayed on all major brokers w/o having to open an account). I also asked why creditors committee chose this obscure firm over dozens of others and which brokers were on the reject list.
I raised these concerns with LC. Craig replied that detailed information is to follow on why ITI was selected. Its not possible to have the shares transferred to a broker of my choice from SVS. LC has negotiated a 6 months fee-free period in which to transfer out.
Upon receiving the reply, I immediately went to FCA register and found the regulatory fines. I could not believe my eyes that it was the new brand name for FXCM. What LC didn't say in the communication that committee or court were provided with this detail of infraction. Later they also said they did not want holding returning to SVS either. I think RasputinB  has kindly posted the link i was unable to post. You can look for his post today at 9:44am 
I emailed LC,

I have received your detailed communication about ITI Capital. It fails to mention firm’s history of violations in the UK. Firm is barred from registering and trading in the US due to fraudulent activity with its clients. In UK, it has been fined for hiding the investigation of US authorities from FCA and manipulating market prices to skim profit off its clients. I fail to see how administrators (Leonard Curtis) could view this firm as a suitable/reliable broker for the transfer. Leonard Curtis should explain why this notorious firm was chosen over dozens of others?

LC replied,

Thank you for your email.  As you will see from the “Why was ITI selected?” question in our Transfer FAQs published on our website last week (linked to below), the Joint Special Administrators didn’t have dozens of other broking firms to choose from in the selection process.  In fact, from an initial list of 14 firms who expressed an interest in acquiring the client base, by December 2019 we were left with a shortlist of only two firms.

Transfer FAQs:

leonardcurtis.co.uk /wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Transfer-FAQs-11.06.2020-.pdf

 Following the completion of this process, ITI was selected as the preferred broker by the Administrators without objection by the FSCS or the FCA. The Creditors' Committee were also consulted on the choice of ITI.

 ITI Capital Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA in the UK and we would advise that you take the matter up directly with the FCA if you have reason to believe that the firm should not hold that status.

 I would also remind you that as part of the terms of the transfer, ITI Capital have agreed to transfer on any clients not wishing their accounts to remain under their custody free of charge, if clients initiate their broker transfers away within the first 6 months following the transfer to them.  If you do not wish for your account to remain under their management, I would suggest that you take advantage of that offer, which the Joint Special Administrators have negotiated on clients’ behalves. 

rnf11

RasputinB said:

........ But had we known that the company we were being transferred to was ITI Capital we would have been able to make our own investigations and make our concerns known prior to the transfer.

Some of us did do just that. With no effect whatsoever.

Nbs222

I agree with Johnburman , transfers should be the priority .  How do we get timeline from ITI for transfers apart from writing to ITI, LC and getting no reply.

On the 14-sep-20   update they don't even mention transfers. Is there any other way to get timeline for transfers from ITI.

RasputinB

johnburman said:

LC did all they had to do.

I don't agree with that! Maybe they followed the letter of the law but they have a responsibility for the resultant shambles.

They are also in a very good position to assist ITI to get things straightened out. I think that up to 1st August they even had a responsibility to supply staff to ITI. Where are those staff now?

Jamesram

OK some light relief and good news. Good news- iWeb just told me that transfer of all my 10 stocks from ITI is in progess right now.

Bad news- ITI have insisted that 3 Aim stocks (from qort SC ac) are to go into my iWeb ISA, and the other 7(from Phoenix ac) should go into my trading account. Wrong!  They should all go into my trading account with iWeb. Readers who give a stuff might recall that my cash only ISA was transferred over two weeks ago- much as I would like to top it up with rogue additions, the taxman might object. The poor staff at iWeb (where ITI is of course now notorious) who have to sort this out, were very helpful and competent, but what a pain..

SO  the moral is take nothing for granted with ITI Capiatl- if it can go wrong, it most probably will!

johnburman

Jamesram look at least you are being transferred... Or at least it is in progress.
You need the transfer to happen and then sort out the problems. iWEB will not want this as it's more hassle for them. But you don't want to hold up the transfers. ITI must be on borrowed time now as the complaints against them are increasingly likely to make the FCA actually do something. You have showed that the CASS rules are being broken by ITI. 

As an aside have iWEB told you that they will be doing the transfer in a batch in a couple of weeks and not individually? 

johnburman

Bizarrely some of our new brokers are feeling the strain with all the new clients transferring in. So we need to put pressure on them to get things moving now they have got the ITI valuations. Unless they go back to ITI with a transfer date we will be delayed even more.