SVS Securities - shut down?

Josl

steverobson1021
LC charged a few quids under £15m for their hourly work. 

RasputinB

Sheris said:

There was no member for the clients, I asked for a contact name or email to L&C in a email back in Febuary, I recivied a phone call the next day from a L&C mobile works number, did not want to put it in wrinting in a email to me, straight away I thought this is being covered up. Even told the person at L&C, I bet Andrew Poxon is already looking for his new Ferrari or Ranger Rover, no reply.     

Hi Sheris. Did you make notes of that conversation at the time? Do you have the day and time that you received the phone call? This could be very important if LC say that there was a member for clients, having admitted to you that there wasn't!

gibson81

My2penneth said:

gibson81 said:

Slightly unrelated question, but to those who have been with iWeb for a period of time - how long does it usually take for a dividend to land in your account? I have noticed with HL it is pretty much the same day but I was due a dividend at iWeb on 24th September but no sign of it yet. I don't want to contact them if it normally takes a few working days. Thanks.

 Normally the same day. What was the company ( sometimes things like REITs can take a bit longer)?

So I just checked with iWeb (again able to get an answer within minutes!). The shares were with ITI for the ex-divi date so the dividend will be paid into my ITI account. I didn't know this but clearly this will lengthen the time it will take for us to get our dividend cash back...

olderbutnowiser

Michael_Reynolds said:

Sheris said:

There was no member for the clients, I asked for a contact name or email to L&C in a email back in Febuary, I recivied a phone call the next day from a L&C mobile works number, did not want to put it in wrinting in a email to me, straight away I thought this is being covered up.
Even told the person at L&C, I bet Andrew Poxon is already looking for his new Ferrari or Ranger Rover, no reply.   

IF THIS IS TRUE & WE CAN PROVE IT THEN IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THIS IS THE SMOKING GUN WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR?

JAMESRAM IF YOU ARE STILL LOOKING AT THESE POSTS WE'D APPRECIATE YOUR OPINION? IF LC NEW THAT THERE WAS NO CLIENT REPRESENTATION ON THAT COMMITTEE THEN THEY HAVE MISLEAD MR JUSTICE MILES AT THE HIGH COURT AND THAT'S EXPLOSIVE?

My recollection was that there was a client member with a Chinese name who was doubtless representing the minority FX traders and not the majority of us XO clients.

I smelled a rat then and events have proved how disastrous it was not having someone who could point out that the client base should have been split and suitable brokers found for the two distinctly separate types of clients.

LEAR1

Danie6 said:

Eventually I now have a Qort account showing my recent dividends and also my shares in Atlantic Coal, which could not be transferred to IBKR because they were delisted. Then the company went belly up and the shares are worth buggerall. If I just leave them there I may end up paying ITI's holding fees for something that can only be thrown in the dust bin. So how about asking for a reverse transfer to see what LC will do with them? They also deserve a headache. I first want to transfer my dividends out of course.

Danie6, interested to know how exactly your Qort account 'shows' the recent dividends. I have read how others have managed to track them in their Phoenix account, but not the Qort.
My Qort account just shows two sub-total figures immediately under the heading 'Cash Balances' near the top of the 'Existing Account Detail - Account Summary' page; one figure is close to (but not exactly the same as) the amount LC transferred over in July. I can't determine the other at all - and it's less than the dividends that should have been received by ITI in the intervening time.
I looked at the 'Cash Transaction' tab, but there's no information displayed.
Where are you seeing your dividends please?

RasputinB

In my Qort account I have three tabs. Portfolio, Transaction History and  Cash Statement.
Portfolio does show my holdings.
Transaction History only shows the details for shares that I sold at ITI.
Cash Statement includes "Income/Write off profits on financial instrument" which I have reconciled to some dividends received. My balance figure in Cash Statement doesn't make sense.
Above the tabs there are two GBP (£) entries and a USD ($) entry.
The USD amount matches a dividend which they received in USD.
The positive GBP (£) entry less the negative GBP (£) entry equates near enough to what I expect my balance figure to be but there are dividends that should have been posted to my account but haven't.
There is nothing in my Phoenix account; presumably because they know that I will be transferring to another broker or asking for a reverse transfer to LC.
Hope that helps!

My2penneth

email to LC 25th September 2020 (note, year included).
(hopefully they can raise this during their weekly videoconf)

Hi XXXXXX

Would you be able to raise a couple of general questions with ITI Capital regarding dividend payments?

 (1) The easy bit!

Shares that have been transferred to Phoenix before companies reach an ex-dividend date are visible - no problems - the IB trading platform knows all about what should be paid and when.

(if one logs onto their Phoenix account the details are visible by running a report)

(2) Pre-migration of shares onto Phoenix 

(2.1) However, in the interim period between LC handover to ITI Capital and shares being transferred to Phoenix, there is a "region of time" when dividends would need to be added to the Qort accounts.

 I guess that this was done manually. There is no visibility of what has been received and paid and by which company. Clients are likely to need this information for tax returns. When will ITI provide this information?

(2.2) What happens to payment of dividends for shares that went ex-dividend whilst still in the Qort account but shares are now in Phoenix? Where will the dividends be added to? (I suspect that the dividends will go into the Qort account and then transferred to Phoenix at a later date?)

 
(2.3) I raise these questions as I've been tracking  dividends that should have been paid yesterday (LGEN & AV.) but they are not visible in neither the Qort nor the Phoenix accounts. Possibly they need to be added manually and this takes time (do ITI Capital handle this manually and how frequently..once a week/month?)

Would it be possible for ITI Capital to provide a "modus operandi" regarding dividend treatment?

REPLY
Dear Mr YYYYYY Thank you for your email.  We will raise these questions with ITI Capital and advise of any response we receive back from them. I would suspect, like many things at ITI Capital, that there is currently a backlog of dividend payments pending credit to Qort accounts and agree with your assumption that once they have been processed they would be transferred to your Phoenix account – but that is purely speculation on my part. I would of course hope that all dividends being received on the Qort account during the current period will be correctly accounted for and logged by the end of the tax year on 5th April 2021.

My2penneth

Qort tells me very little and what it does is generally incorrect (share values/portfolio value x2 etc etc). Clicking on the tabs in Qort is an exercise in futility.

Jamesram

Michael_Reynolds said:

Sheris said:

There was no member for the clients, I asked for a contact name or email to L&C in a email back in Febuary, I recivied a phone call the next day from a L&C mobile works number, did not want to put it in wrinting in a email to me, straight away I thought this is being covered up.
Even told the person at L&C, I bet Andrew Poxon is already looking for his new Ferrari or Ranger Rover, no reply.   

IF THIS IS TRUE & WE CAN PROVE IT THEN IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THIS IS THE SMOKING GUN WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR?

JAMESRAM IF YOU ARE STILL LOOKING AT THESE POSTS WE'D APPRECIATE YOUR OPINION? IF LC NEW THAT THERE WAS NO CLIENT REPRESENTATION ON THAT COMMITTEE THEN THEY HAVE MISLEAD MR JUSTICE MILES AT THE HIGH COURT AND THAT'S EXPLOSIVE?

Yes I am still here. Currently engaged with Robin Amos of Citywire trying to help him with a proposed follow-up piece to https://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/svs-client-fury-as-new-broker-fails-to-return-278m/a1390644 bringing matters up to date.

As regards the Creditors Committee, my recollection is that LC has stated that there were 4 people representing SVS client interests on the Committee, at least one being legally qualified and others having investor experience. I cannot recall the actual document but will check for it when I can. Having a bit of a family crisis at present, so maybe someone else will locate it first? Was it in the LC Report in late August I wonder, on the LC website PDSF docs?

As regards misleading the Court, of course that would be serious- for instance,solicitors for LC are Officers of the Court and it would be hugely embarrassing to them if that had happened. However, such a serious allegation needs serious investigation and as I say, my recollection is that there was client representation- in fact one of my earlier posts I believe posited that it would be interesting to know  the identity of these 4 people because it was hard to understand how they had come to a decision in favour of ITI. But of course we don't know what they were told about the company at the time- we are going back to early 2020, possibly even late 2019, when the decision in principle was made.

jenwrendorset

jenwrendorset said:

Jools2001 said:

Finally have my non isa accounttransferring to HL,
However HL wont accept my African Minerals, or Urals shares as both are delisted!
Any idea what i can do, as i dont want to lose these shares if they start up again (which is possible )

Will ITI issue me with a paper certificate for these shares?  Anyone else having the same with any delisted shares?

Jools

We're having exactly the same problem, check out pg 437.  I've been back to LC and their response is printed below:

Thank you for your reply. I was under the impression that iWeb would not accept the BNN shares on their own, as the valuation statement they were incorrectly sent by ITI Capital only included the delisted stock.  I was assuming that iWeb would take a different view and would be able to accept the delisted shares if they were coming along with all the other tradable shares in your ITI Phoenix account.  Have you spoken to iWeb to ask if they will take the BNN shares if they form part of a transfer including the rest of your active portfolio?

 

If iWeb will not take them, you’re other options would be to:

 

1.       Keep them with ITI longer-term. I believe their custody charges are based on a percentage portfolio value, so it maybe that it won’t cost you anything to keep a currently value-less share with them – but you would need to confirm that with them;

2.       Find another broker that will accept them in a transfer from ITI;

3.       Request that they be withdrawn from ITI in certificated form so you can hold them yourself.  This option is dependent on a registrar still acting for the company being able to materialise the stock  or, if a registrar no longer acts for the company, the company doing this themselves.

 

Many SVS clients did hold AIM shares and although ITI’s Phoenix accounts cannot hold them, they are able to trade them for clients over the telephone – provided they are not delisted, like BNN currently is.

I've been back to iWeb although I already knew their response which leaves the 3 options above and only possibly no. 1 is viable - no broker will take on a de-listed company on its own, why would they? and even if there was a registrar still acting for this delisted company (which I'm sure there isn't) I think the chances of getting a certificated form is about as likely as my cash withdrawals landing up in my bank account this side of Christmas.  I'm going back to LC and request that they sort out Option 1 - they've got us in this mess so I hold them responsible - apart from that, there is no chance of an email being answered if I send it.  Will keep you notified.

I've received an efficient response from LC this morning which basically confirms what was said in Option 1 - below is the relevant extract.  Like you, we're hoping our delisted shares resurface - unfortunately dodgy dealings by the CEO and COO was the cause of their delisting and the subsequent failure to appoint a new advisor in time. We've been in the doldrums for a couple of years now but seems the norm nowadays - nothing happens fast so either Brexit or Covid will take the blame.  Anyway hope this puts your mind at rest (there is a 'should' not a 'won't in the last paragraph but that is to be expected.  Have a good day.

" Thank you for your reply.  I can confirm that the ITI Capital “Custody Fee” which will be brought into effect from 23 October 2020, is based on the value of client portfolios (specifically 25 basis points per annum, or 0.25%).

Please see Page 5 of their Rate Card published on their website below for confirmation of this:

https://iticapital.com/assets/pdf/Rate-Card-october-2020.pdf

Therefore, if your BNN shares remain delisted and for the purposes of a valuation “worthless”, ITI should not charge you anything for continuing to hold them for you.