SVS Securities - shut down?

gibson81

RasputinB said:

rnf11 said:

It's beginning to look as though ITIC are wilfully not transferring the residual cash to other brokers. No one here, as far as I can see, has had any success with this part of a transfer out.

A delaying tactic would make sense to me. That way other dividends can come in and they can do just the one transfer to clear the cash.

That's my thinking too. Shares held in our ITI account at ex-dividend date will be paid to ITI even if our shares have been transferred. I suspect ITI is waiting for the last dividend to be paid in then the cash will follow.

pafpcg

Jamesram said:

pafpcg - I am not fooled by your apparently  innocuous approach- I can see that you are trying to get me to commit to an opinion on the Investment Bank Special Administration Regulations 2011 ("IBSAR"), which I assume will then  turn out to be your specialist subject on which you will roast me!

Eh?  My original specialist subject was thin-film toroidal drives for continuously-variable-ratio automotive transmissions, but since my thesis was nearly half-a-century ago, I guess it's now just "grumpy old man"!

Thanks for all your research, and do continue with it even though most is way over my head, but I did want to flag-up the two streams of "ITI clients" - those who signed-up, created accounts and then thought better of it & decided to get out, and those who decided long ago that they wanted nothing to do with ITI. 

But will quoting UK financial regulations at them actually get us anywhere?  I get the impression from all the posts containing quotations from emails and phone conversations with ITI, that the senior management at ITI just don't care about what is happening.  I doubt that they care about their responsibilities under the regulations, the agreement with LC for the transfer from SVS or whatever, except perhaps if they were to become criminally or personally liable in some way.  They don't seem to be concerned about the FCA or their reputation.  I'm sure they are not stupid, so why did they think that ITI should try to absorb the SVS clients without the necessary planning and resources?  What was/is their real objective?  Is ITI just some Trump-style loss-making operation to set against a tax bill or is there something deeper?

Emillion1

The sad thing is whilst all you clients wait for your holdings to populate within new trading systems, markets are falling and losses sustained due to market performance are not valid claims, even if you can't sell your shares.  Leonard Curtis however will still be making handsome fee's.  Fee's now running at £9.2m  - A true scandal! 

Sheris

My2penneth said:

Just had a phone call from a guy called Chris (a self employed advisor) who was hoping to raise awareness about SVS and possible compo claim.

How did he get my number?

He rang on 02034760393

Had lots of phone calls and Im not listed, Data protection broken.

eskbanker

Sheris said:

My2penneth said:

Just had a phone call from a guy called Chris (a self employed advisor) who was hoping to raise awareness about SVS and possible compo claim.

How did he get my number?

He rang on 02034760393

Had lots of phone calls and Im not listed, Data protection broken.

The phone number data was apparently leaked over a year ago:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76208462/#Comment_76208462

Michael_Reynolds

Ladies & gentlemen. I'd like to report some good news BUT I'm afraid there just isn't any!
I sent the following email to Andrew Poxon and Alex Cadwallader at LC.
"Dear Andrew & Alex

Trawling through your online reports I did find the attached PDF.

I note that there were five members of the Creditors Committee established on Oct 23rd 2019.

I have some questions that I would like answers to:

On what basis were Mr. Paul Glaser, Dr Patrick White, Mr Bin Lou represented by Mr Salam Alaswad and Mr Harry Mount selected as members of the Creditors Committee? Did some type of election take place at the Clients and Creditors meeting on October 10th 2019 or was this a unilateral decision made by the JSAs?

Please can you confirm that all four above mentioned people were SVS Creditors and or Clients?

Mr Salam Alaswad's CV clearly states that he is a FX trader. I assume he was selected to represent the minority SVS FX Clients?

Which particular member of this committee was elected to represent the majority SVS XO Clients?

I look forward to hearing from you"

Not wishing to dirty their hands they passed the email to one of their worker bees. Here is the reply:

"Dear Mr Reynolds,

Thank you for your email.

The legislation governing the special administration regime requires the Creditors' Committee to consist of at least three and not more than five persons. In accordance with the legislation, the Joint Special Administrators took steps to ensure that the make-up of the Creditors' Committee nominated by creditors and clients of SVS Securities plc (in special administration) ("SVS") was a reflection of all parties with an interest in the achievement of the special administration objectives (i.e. both clients and creditors).

At the initial meeting of creditors and clients of SVS held on 10 October 2019, the clients and creditors in attendance (in person or by way of proxy) resolved to form a Creditors' Committee. Nominations for membership of the Creditors' Committee were received by the Joint Special Administrators from clients and creditors. Those nominees for membership of the Creditors' Committee in turn consulted and made recommendations to the Joint Special Administrators regarding the composition of the Creditors' Committee.

Following careful consideration of those recommendations, the Creditors' Committee was formally constituted on 23 October 2019 and, on 30 October 2019, the Joint Special Administrators announced via the dedicated website (www.leonardcurtis.co.uk/svs) that the elected members of the Creditors' Committee were:

-               Mr Paul Glaser;

-               Dr Patrick Wright;

-               Mr Bin Lou, being represented by Mr Salam Alaswad;

-               Mr Harry Mount; and

-               the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

In addition to the above, the following observers were appointed:

-               Mr Allen Challender;

-               Ms Jing Ying Yang; and

-               Mr Ian (Chris) Underwood.

The members of the Creditors' Committee represent the client and creditor bodies of SVS as a whole (rather than the interests of certain parties or individuals) in the special administration. There is therefore no single representative of clients and/or creditors, but a combined representation across the Creditors' Committee.

Please let us know if you have any further queries"

If there is a smoking gun here we are going to have to dig very deep to find it! While we were all still reeling from the shock of the FCA placing SVS into administration LC were extremely busy! Does anyone know any of these faceless people who were appointed to the Creditors Committee? None of them are contactable EXCEPT via LC. I am thinking that SVS must have had a number of substantial Chinese FX traders with very deep pockets? Mr Bin Lou (a Rowan Atkinson character) & Ms Jing Ying Yang among them? So, I think we can safely assume that right from the start of the administration little attention was going to be paid to the XO Clients? Does anyone have any thoughts on the split of the SVS database between FX & XO? 

Clearly we have been asleep at the wheel where LC are concerned. They have walked all over us at every stage in the proceedings and I suspect that is because undue influence was placed upon them? The question is "Just how far does this influence extend"? It is very difficult to understand why the FCA appear to have done nothing to intervene. It is TEN WEEKS today since ITI Capital were supposed to give us full access to our portfolios and cash on July 23rd! Are we really expected to believe that LC & the FCA are working actively behind the scenes with ITI to resolve their problems? 

Weeks ago I was given Phoenix login details but still have no access. Some have had their portfolios transferred to their nominated brokers but only one person if I remember correctly seems to have had their cash returned.

I agree with pafpcg. I don't think ITI give a damn. Week after week they just ignore the continuous stream of complaints from us but remain immune and totally impervious? I find this terrifying and I think it's unlikely that we are going to see the return of any cash in the foreeseable future? I've personally never experienced stress and anxiety at this level. The last three months have taken years off my life.

Tonyiti

Just to report the shares in my 2 accounts have shown up in my iweb accounts even though I’ve been unable to jump through all the ITI Capital hoops.

No cash yet. If RasputinB & gibson81 are correct then ITI waiting for last dividends to come through before doing cash transfer.

iweb initiated transfer mid August.

Michael_Reynolds

Ths is worth reading:
 https://www.intellinews.com/uralsib-s-london-business-vanishes-to-stardust-after-sale-119316/

toad333

I've just settled a trade from August 2019. It seems to have cost £29.46 (can't be sure since the ITI's portal is as clear as mud). But a bit of assuming and arithmetic would suggest that's the cost.
The original trade cost £7.95. Shouldn't ITI be charging me the cost of the original trade? And if not, can I claim the difference from the FSCS?
Also, I'm missing the dividends for the shares that were unsettled. Any ideas what happened to the dividends from unsettled trades?
As usual, no answers from ITI.

This whole rigmarole would make a good story for BBC's Money Box.

olderbutnowiser

@Michael_Reynolds

"Does anyone have any thoughts on the split of the SVS database between FX & XO?"

Thanks for taking this up for us. My recollection is that there was a communication somewhere from LC where the number of FX clients was stated to be around 7,000 with around 11,000 XO clients.

ITI were clearly chosen because they would accept foreign based clients and the composition of the creditors committee was biased towards those.  

The majority XO clients have been treated as an after-thought, if that. One bizarre example is that AIM stocks are not tradeable on the Phoenix platform!