SVS Securities - shut down?

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!

RasputinB

Michael_Reynolds said:

Clearly we have been asleep at the wheel where LC are concerned. They have walked all over us at every stage in the proceedings ..

Now we know that we should have been at every meeting we could have attended!

Who nominated the members of the Creditors' Committee?

Should XO clients have been given the opportunity?

I'm sure LC would have covered their backsides on this and I'll try to look through the paperwork later but I can't remember being asked if I'd like to nominate a member.

Jamesram

Michael_Reynolds said:

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

It certainly does Michael, than you very much. Everyone interested in "how we got to here" should read it in my view, so I have  reproduced it here: 3 Things immediately strike me about the piece:

1) It explains how ITI Capital managed  to get into the licensed UK brokerage business with FCA and LSE approval: they just bought  "off the peg an"  arm of  a Russian bank with those attributes -  Pavel Naumenko, CEO of ITI Group, said "the acquisition of a fully licensed UK broker" is a huge step for his firm.

2) It clarifies ITI Capital's antecedents, and its notes the strong Russian  presence : The deal was co-financed by Da Vinci Capital, a private equity manager based in Moscow headed by Oleg Jelezko.....According to its website, Guernsey-based ITI Group is a brokerage firm focusing on technology and algorithmic trading, and providing “selected buy-side products” in the partnership with ITI Funds. As part of the deal, filings show that Jelezko will become a director at ITI Capital.  Pavel Naumenko, CEO of ITI Group, said ........ “It cements our commitment to taking a leading position among brokers with a strong Russian and international presence,”

3) It raises questions (as very recently echoed on this Board) as to the motives and end-game of ITI Capital
“The bank has a bunch of guys doing virtually nothing for the past two years but sit around in prime London office space. The bank had previously employed 25 people in its London office and was the Russian partner to prestigious New York brokerage Auerbach Grayson. The lease of its offices on the 33rd floor of the prestigious Tower 42 (formerly the NatWest Tower) is understood to cost around £4mn a year to maintain and is expected to be far too extravagant for the new owners, insiders said."

Well we know they are still there. We also know that ITI Capital made losses of £millions in its last posted accounts, 2017, 2018.

So what is going on? Is the business solvent and a going concern NOW (as opposed to just being propped up by Da Vinci)? And why, if a financial journalist was able to report on all this quite easily in April 2017, how was it that all the people supposedly protecting the interests of all SVS clients were apparently pursuaded that ITI Capital was an appropriate broker- ie what was ITI Capital doing in 2019  to demonstrate that it had the existing systems, staff, financial stability to be able to take on this realtively huge new client base? [and remember, it was quoting a client base of 35,000 worldwide- how many clients were with the London office I wonder?]

These are questions only an independent investigation could determine- will it be by the government, government agency, or media I wonder- or just no one at all.

Uralsib's London business vanishes to stardust after sale

Uralsib's London business vanishes to stardust after sale to brokerage.

By Jason Corcoran in London April 11, 2017

The Uralsib name in London has gone up in a puff of smoke after the Russian lender sold its subsidiary for an undisclosed sum to an emerging markets brokerage firm.

bne IntelliNews had reported exclusively in October last year that the parent lender had put its London business up for sale, effectively uprooting the mysticism-laden legacy of its ex-billionaire founder Nikolai Tsvetkov.

As part of the sale, the Uralsib brand – synonymous with the unconventional world of Tsvetkov – has been dropped in favour of ITI Capital. The deal was co-financed by Da Vinci Capital, a private equity manager based in Moscow headed by Oleg Jelezko, who made a mint punting on the RTS before its merger with Micex. 

According to its website, Guernsey-based ITI Group is a brokerage firm focusing on technology and algorithmic trading, and providing “selected buy-side products” in the partnership with ITI Funds. As part of the deal, filings show that Jelezko will become a director at ITI Capital. 

Pavel Naumenko, CEO of ITI Group, said the acquisition of a fully licensed UK broker is a huge step for his firm. “It cements our commitment to taking a leading position among brokers with a strong Russian and international presence,” he said.

Naumenko is an old Moscow banking hand who worked at Promsvyazbank, Sberbank, Merill Lynch and Renaisance Capital, where he is likely to have known Jelezko.

Uralsib veteran John Lewin surprisingly retains his role as chief executive of the London operation after the buyout. His team has been pared back to the bone by a Moscow parent anxious to cut costs. “We see robust synergies between ITI Group and Uralsib’s core products,” Lewin said in a statement.

The Moscow parent Uralsib, which has ties to President Vladimir Putin, stopped its English-language research daily last year and discontinued some of its Russian-language products, sources close to the bank told bne IntelliNews in October.  Most analysts and production staff, who were based in Moscow, were laid off.

Uralsib, once Russia’s fifth-largest bank by assets, has been roiled by mismanagement, the collapse in commodity prices and the fallout from sanctions against the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine. Founder Tsvetkov surrendered control in November 2015 as part of a bailout, after a year of the bank being on the edge of bankruptcy and under threat of having its licence revoked.

“The writing has been on the wall for the UK business since the bank changed hands,” a source close to Uralsib told bne IntelliNews. “The bank has a bunch of guys doing virtually nothing for the past two years but sit around in prime London office space.”

The bank had previously employed 25 people in its London office and was the Russian partner to prestigious New York brokerage Auerbach Grayson. The lease of its offices on the 33rd floor of the prestigious Tower 42 (formerly the NatWest Tower) is understood to cost around £4mn a year to maintain and is expected to be far too extravagant for the new owners, insiders said.

Tsvetkov, a former Soviet Air Force officer who is a fan of mysticism, paid the sky-high rent because “the building looks like a rocket ship to the stars”, a former staffer told bne IntelliNews. The office, which takes up the south-facing side of the building with a panoramic view over the River Thames towards the Houses of Parliament, was even decorated with space motifs. “It is the ideal feng shui location,” said the former exec.

As part of Uralsib’s rescue – or “sanitation” as it’s known in Russian – the state extended an RUB81bn ($1.3bn) lifeline to the bank and allowed entrepreneur Vladimir Kogan, a close ally of Putin, to take a 82% stake.

Meanwhile, Tsvetkov was left with a minority holding and is believed to have withdrawn from the business to focus on his spirituality and personal research. In a profile last year, bne IntelliNews revealed how revelations and mysticism were stock-in-trade of his management style.