SVS Securities - shut down?

Emillion1

Michael_Reynolds said:

pafpcg said:

olderbutnowiser said:

@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!

Paras 11 & 12 of the Court Judgement in May have numbers which might shed some light:
11  At the date of the administrators’ appointment, on 5 August 2019, SVS had approximately 18,600 clients for which it held client assets and client money.  The client assets had an indicative valuation at that date of approximately £286 million held for approximately 11,100 clients.  Client money was in excess of £23.7 million with some smaller euro and dollar amounts of some 16,600 clients of which 7,550 have client money claims only.  The client money was held in a segregated client account in accordance with CASS 7.
 
12  The large majority, about 92% of the clients by number, were retail clients with portfolios averaging less than £10,000 in value.  About 66% of the clients are domiciled in the United Kingdom.  ........

I find it difficult to believe that 7,550 X-O clients out of a total of 18,600 would have only cash (ie no equity assets) in their SVS accounts. So my guess is that the bulk of those 7,550 are F-X clients.

I'm also surprised that one-third (6,200) of the SVS clients were not UK-based.  This too supports the contention that there are several thousands of F-X clients overseas.

What is clear that assets in the X-O business (£286M) is a magnitude greater that that of any F-X assets (maximum of £23M), so it would be reasonable to suggest that LC should be giving priority to the X-O clients.  But maybe it's the F-X clients who generate far greater overall profit than X-O clients which inevitably leads to the negotiation between the Administrators and ITI being all about the F-X clients, with X-O clients an afterthought.

I entirely agree with you. I think you've hit the nail on the head here. I don't think ITI were ever very interested in the XO clients. ITI thought they were going to get the FX clients. Perhaps they have? We won't know that because they aren't complaining. They are much too busy trading FX. For some time now I've been trying to work out the Chinese/Russian connection? The link of course is algorithmic FX trading. Somewhere among this pile of sh... is probably the basis for a class action. The XO Clients had by far the largest portion of assets and were quite deliberately sidelined when it came to representation. I suspect that LC were talking to ITI much earlier than they cared to disclose. They of course have justified this by saying that they got GBP500K out of ITI which will have pleased the FSCS. I am not at all sure that ITI won't already be making stacks of money from these FX traders. The emails I've recently received from ITI's senior management lead me to believe that are just inexperienced, lazy, stupid and blatantly incompetent. The FX clients are so much easier to deal with and so much more profitable. The one thing however that they don't want is large fines from the FOS. I note that LC are carefully protecting the creditors committee members. The only way to contact them is through LC. 

Incorrect.
The FX business was in the main run via China, most clients were classified as Elective Professional Clients when possibly not qualifying, the client classification rules are quite specific. The FX - clients were screwed over on the B book (run out of Dubai by some Directors of SVS) The FX business has not been sold, who wants 5,000+ small account size Chinese punters who have lost their money!  
The XO business of SVS has never made any money and was a lead generator for the advisory business.  My assumption is ITI will have seen this as a low client acquisition cost and try and cross sell to get a ROI.  Get ready for the phone calls from them!

The FX business was far more profitable than the XO business. XO never made a profit. Regarding FX - The house always wins!

johnburman

With respect this forum has been discussing this for some time. We all accept that ITI wanted the FX clients and not the XO clients. But it was clear as crystal that XO clients would leave so why did they not get enough staff to do this. Further if dividends are not being correctly credited to accounts the CASS rules are not being maintained.

I hope that all posters here are telling the FCA what is happening or rather not happening with ITI. 

PS my transfers requested in the last week of July have not taken place. I wonder for how long the FCA will allow this situation to remain. 

My2penneth

Emillion1 said:

The XO business of SVS has never made any money and was a lead generator for the advisory business.  My assumption is ITI will have seen this as a low client acquisition cost and try and cross sell to get a ROI.  Get ready for the phone calls from them!

The FX business was far more profitable than the XO business. XO never made a profit. Regarding FX - The house always wins!

A phone call FROM ITI.....We will know the numbers they use to dial out ( they'll be posted here). I look forward to NOT answering their calls. 

( eventually I will just block their calls)

My2penneth

1. Leonard Curtis issued a client update 28th September....it was a warning notice of a potential scammer.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Joint Special Administrators (“JSAs”) have been made aware that a person or persons claiming to be connected to Leonard Curtis and/or the Joint Special Administrators has been attempting to contact former clients of SVS Securities PLC by telephone requesting personal information and suggesting various scenarios including, but not exclusively:

 Purchasing shares above market value; and 

 Pension re-buys. 

This communication is considered fraudulent. The JSAs continue to encourage you to remain vigilant and to exercise caution when dealing with correspondence regarding the special administration or ITI. If you are in any doubt regarding the authenticity of any correspondence you may receive, please do not hesitate to contact the JSAs on 0203 457 4871 (selecting option 0) or by 

email at svs@leonardcurtis.co.uk. Support is available to all clients of the Company and further information on the special administration should be sought in the first instance from 

www.leonardcurtis.co.uk/svs.

‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clearly there has been a GDPR issue here whereby they have telephone numbers.

RasputinB

My2penneth said:

Clearly there has been a GDPR issue here whereby they have telephone numbers.

Chances are that there are on-going data breaches at ITI Capital and in time these should be brought to the attention of the Information Commissioner's Office. But our main concern now is to get all our assets out safely. Until that happens it might be best just to collect evidence rather than risk further delays whilst ITI make their systems secure?

Emillion1

Whilst it is dreadful and down to total incompetence that XO clients have not had their shares transferred, the real sad part is the people who have had their Defined Benefit pensions decimated.  The bonds which have been sold had connected parties, as per the FCA notice.  WHY would an IFA recommend a client to exit a DB scheme, transfer into a SIPP and then give discretion to a manager without a history of managing clients investments or track record.   WHY? Backhanders all the way through the introduction chain. There should be an FCA and police fraud enquiry into SVS and the IFA's.  Conspiracy to defraud springs to mind.

jenwrendorset

Emillion1 said:

helencary said:

Hi, I have two investments that will not be supported on my new brokers platform when I do finally transfer. Both of these shares are currently suspended. I don’t want them left with iti as I do not want to leave my account open. Thank you in advance for any advice 

You can still transfer the holdings, they will just show a value of zero, bid or mid price depending upon your new brokers software. 

Only if your new broker will accept them - iWeb are unable to accept our unlisted shares so having to leave them in Qort account

sweetsand

My2penneth said:

Please complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.  The first 25 complaints are free but then it is £650  for every complaint thereafter ( guilty or innocent??.innocent...pleeeeze!).  ITI have  been extracting the urine. They only understand threats but be prepared to carry through! 

Yes, complain and FOS takes time but it will stop this lot from messing up like this again.

Michael_Reynolds

Emillion1 said:. 

Incorrect.
The FX business was in the main run via China, most clients were classified as Elective Professional Clients when possibly not qualifying, the client classification rules are quite specific. The FX - clients were screwed over on the B book (run out of Dubai by some Directors of SVS) The FX business has not been sold, who wants 5,000+ small account size Chinese punters who have lost their money!  
The XO business of SVS has never made any money and was a lead generator for the advisory business.  My assumption is ITI will have seen this as a low client acquisition cost and try and cross sell to get a ROI.  Get ready for the phone calls from them!

The FX business was far more profitable than the XO business. XO never made a profit. Regarding FX - The house always wins!

Are we now being asked to believe that ITI were stupid enough to pay GBP 500,000 for the non profitable SVS XO clients and got NOTHING else? Wake up and read the linked article I posted and jamesram detailed in full. The story is all there in black and white!

Blueshirt_Joe

Hallelujah praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!!
I logged on to II today to find all holdings transferred from ITI Capital, as promised by Chris Smith.
This settlement date was set out originally by II when I first initiated the transfer on August 8th, I'm impressed they've been able to keep that schedule. 
No cash transferred yet but 
I was pleased to see my RDSB holdings included. So all in all a successful outcome, but it did take a bit of work to get to this point!