SVS Securities - shut down?

pafpcg

RasputinB said:

shiznit76 said:

LC no longer are responsible

My understanding is that after a Reverse Transfer responsibility reverts to SVS and thus LC.

Technically the move from SVS to my preferred broker will be after the assets have been moved from ITI back to SVS but I suspect that in practice the move will be direct from ITI to my broker but handled by SVS.

May I ask on what evidence do you base that suspicion?

My understanding is that the transfer of assets from SVS (under LC administration) to ITI was accomplished simply by transferring ownership of the SVS nominee companies that were the registered holders of our assets.  The transfer-out of our assets to new brokers involves the formal transfer of ownership of specific assets from the (ex-SVS now ITI-controlled) nominee company to the nominee company of the new broker.  How the ITI-back-to-SVS Reverse Transfer would work is unclear to me, but I fail to see why "SVS-Two" under the control of LC would accept details of transfers from "SVS-Two" to brokers of individual choice until AFTER  any assets are transferred back to the ownership of a new nominee company under the control of "SVS-Two"/LC.  Not only will the Reverse Transfer take a long time to complete (new asset-holding structures required, a reluctant management (LC) together with the inevitable tardiness of ITI), but who will then undertake the actual transfer of assets from "SVS-Two" to the eventual broker?  LC may simply sub-contract the whole process to ITI with all their known faults & weaknesses, but would, I suggest, deflect criticism of that choice by pointing out that LC has repeatedly warned that the Reverse Transfer process was never seen as a viable option.  "but handled by SVS" is just not something I see as possible.

I fear that relying on the Reverse Transfer could be a major problem - switching back to a manager, LC, which has clearly stated a disinclination to manage such a process, combined with the reliance on ITI for at least some of the process?  Initially (in August), I considered requesting a reversion to SVS, but I decided to do the simplest "opt-out" transfer rather than risk the uncertain future of being at the mercy of LC.

Researcher16

Update:

Aviva dividends appeared in our accounts on 15th October more than three weeks after the payment date.  Dividends from another share that should have been paid on 16th October are not in my account.

I was told in September that “Valuations have been sent to Hargreaves Lansdowne, and we will be sending a valuation to Equiniti this week.” This never happened, my transfer request was initiated at the beginning of August.

I had a message from Equiniti today stating “I have spoken to your provider today and they have assured us that your transfer is in hand but may take a further six to eight weeks to process”. Sigh!

I have not had any replies from anyone at ITI since September despite requests for information.  LC just keep fobbing me off with the ball is in ITI’s court types of general messages.  LC never responded to my comments that it would probably have been faster and safer to have transferred shares directly on behalf of SVS clients.

Thrugelmir

Monsieur_Bourse said:

 I did say to the unhelpful dealer that I spoke to, 'you should look for a job with a proper broker, before this lot goes bust', he did not respond.

I'm sure that he had a fair number of retorts going through his head. Being professional he quite correctly refrained. 

Josl

pafpcg RasputinB is right on the money. There's a clause in the distribution order that allows clients to revert transfers back to SVS. Responsibility then lies with LC to get ITI to move sub-custody (under control of ITI) assets out to a broker of your choice. LC may want to be unwilling but if you had approached by stating that you wanted to revert the transfer, LC would have had no choice but to oblige.
However, all of this is a moot point now that deadline has passed.

Monsieur_Bourse

Thrugelmir said:

Monsieur_Bourse said:

 I did say to the unhelpful dealer that I spoke to, 'you should look for a job with a proper broker, before this lot goes bust', he did not respond.

I'm sure that he had a fair number of retorts going through his head. Being professional he quite correctly refrained. 

Professional and ITI Capital in the same sentence, you jest of course.

Clairabella

Nbs222 said:

Has anyone managed to withdraw cash from their ITI accounts in the last 2  weeks, I have been waiting for 2 weeks and I know someone whose cash withdrawal hasn't been processed for 4 weeks.

I emailed the withdrawal form on 27/09 requesting cash. I had no response so resent on 12/10.  I am still waiting! In the meantime Diageo’s dividends have been added so now I have more than I requested. Whilst I’m pleased to see the dividend added, my shares have disappeared! Last week I had double the amounts I should have.   What a shambles!! 

RasputinB

pafpcg said:

May I ask on what evidence do you base that suspicion?

I don't have evidence other than how quickly SVS started to process the transfer.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I had transferred US stocks between brokers and it was completed in a week. I don't expect the transfer from SVS to be that quick but it only took a couple of days for the two brokers (SVS and mine) to communicate so I expect the transfer to be done within a month. I should add that it is a "clean" transfer i.e. all shares can be traded.

There will be some dividend cash to sort out but that is now the job of LC.

I see that Josl has mentioned sub-custody assets in his post here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77710977/#Comment_77710977 It is a good point as the "transfer" from ITI back to SVS may not involve an actual move of the shares if they are simply reclassified from custody to sub-custody.

Monsieur_Bourse

Clairabella said:

Nbs222 said:

Has anyone managed to withdraw cash from their ITI accounts in the last 2  weeks, I have been waiting for 2 weeks and I know someone whose cash withdrawal hasn't been processed for 4 weeks.

I emailed the withdrawal form on 27/09 requesting cash. I had no response so resent on 12/10.  I am still waiting! In the meantime Diageo’s dividends have been added so now I have more than I requested. Whilst I’m pleased to see the dividend added, my shares have disappeared! Last week I had double the amounts I should have.   What a shambles!! 

I think that the refusal for ITI to fast track cash withdrawals is the worse thing out of this whole sorry debacle. If they had any decency at all at least return the cash to the rightful owners, some people need the dividend income to live on. All other brokers in the 21st century has automated this process, but not ITI everything appears to be done manually. My wife is in the same position awaiting her cash, I think that next week we will have to escalate the situation, and look to taking out a small court claims action against ITI. How on earth the FCA cannot at least step in and order ITI to return our money I do not know.

jenwrendorset

Just received email from FCA acknowledging my complaint of 5 October (I think everyone and their dog got that email I was that cheesed off...) - as my email included details of my husband's and son's accounts they now want written confirmation from them both before continuing - that makes sense and I'm happy to supply that information but I'm going to struggle to meet  their deadline of 3 October !!!! 

RasputinB

Monsieur_Bourse said:

All other brokers in the 21st century has automated this process, but not ITI everything appears to be done manually.

I mentioned in an earlier post why I think ITI have had problems with moving portfolios on to the Phoenix system i.e. to Interactive Brokers and why this resulted in the need to work manually.

The problem I suspect for cash etc. is that the Qort system isn’t totally secure. You can find this out by checking the security information on your browser after logging in.

I am guessing that ITI didn’t worry too much about this as the Qort system was supposed to be only a temporary route to Phoenix, which is 100% secure.

But what happens when clients raise tickets through Qort asking for cash withdrawals? Because of the weakness in security the withdrawal request may be coming from a third party. The safest thing for ITI to do is ignore these withdrawal requests. If the client gets through by phone then they can pass verification and the withdrawal can be processed.  That may explain why some of us who sold shares (and thus were verified by the trader) were able to get the proceeds out without massive hassle.

Most of this is guess work based on my experiences and what I have seen.

If anyone shares my concerns about security issues they can contact the ICO.

They say that “If an organisation isn’t taking its responsibilities seriously, we may also take enforcement action. In the most serious cases, we can serve a monetary penalty of up €20 million, or 4% of [the] total worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher”.

https://ico.org.uk/