SVS Securities - shut down?

My2penneth

I give them 2 weeks as then I can say I was generous and recognised the pressure they are under..after all, they have to list out the details on a whole 4 accounts for transactions that took place in our accounts over a period of a couple of months .... What's more I provided them with a list (18 dividends spread over 4 accounts) of the ones I could not track down in each of the accounts and the expected values so really all they have to do is check and confirm when the sum was paid.
 
I have bent over backwards (added vaseline) in an attempt to help them. I get the feeling that I'm doing more work than ITI - especially when I look at the mounting correspondance which I print out.

Aren't brokers legally bound with keeping a track of dividends received and actually letting their clients know ? methinks they are!

p.s. I received a CRM number for my email to Rahul - the number was a lower value than ones from yesterday...? 

I will be emailing them back and asking them about progress on the open CRMs. They will have to look up what each one is about. Each one of these CRMs is a customer complaint. NO doubt in 8 weeks I will be generating yet another FOS complaint.

I'm pretty p155ed off by ITI Capital.

Jamesram

Josl said:

Jamesram: Provision for protection of clients (to revert/transfer out) exist in the SPA (document not released to clients) , references to this provision and the insolvency law protections have been stated in the explanatory statement (issued on 24-April) from page 11 onwards > PART 2: TRANSFERS AND DISTRIBUTIONS.
One may argue that by not following instructions from clients ITI breached these protections and by not providing a transfer out clause in its own terms directly affected many clients which was prohibited by 6.11 (b) (ii) (C) as materially adversely affect any Client's ability to transfer to another broker or return their Client Assets.  

You re right, there's no transfer out clause in ITI's terms only FAQs provide this info,

If it is a cash transfer to your own bank account, we will action this immediately
If it is a broker transfer, we will action when instructions are received from your existing broker as described in point 6.

Many if not most will vouch that ITI did not follow the procedure laid out on its website.

Phew! Got there in the end Josl. Its the doc. "12/05/2020 Explanatory Statement" on the LC  Doc Download page, headed Final Explanatory Statement  first circulated 24 April.

6.11 What terms will govern my account with the Nominated Broker?

b) An exercise has been carried out by the Administrators to align the Nominated Broker's client terms of business  [so that]
(i) Clients switching to a different broker within six months of the Settlement Date will not be required to pay exit fees to the Nominated Broker; and
(ii) that, for a period of three months from the Settlement Date, the Nominated Broker will not be permitted to make any variations:
(A) to the flat fee structure set out in the Nominated Broker's client terms of business. For a period of three months .......
(B...................................
(C) which would materially adversely affect any Client's ability to transfer to another broker or return their Client Assets.

Surely ITI Capital will just say "we have not changed our terms of business to adversely affect transfers- in fact we have just beneficially changed them to extend the original time period of fee exemptions on transfers. We may be completely incompetent, but we did not make any adverse changes - we have always behaved like this. We may have failed by any objective standard to meet  our obligations under the original Terms of Businessand the Consumer Rights Act 2015., but we haven't tried to change anything adversely in our Terms, your Lordship- we didn't need to to achieve this shambles"

Or am I missing something else here- its been a long day.

kronos67

I am one of the lucky few who have actually got my assets out of ITI. However, the story does not end there. In spite of numerous emails and raising a dozen tickets, ITI will not close my accounts. They have not, at time of writing, made any attempt at contacting me. Whether this is incompetence, or they are planning to charge us all dormant account fees, I do not yet know. We will all have to sit tight and find out it seems…

It is the FCA that I find most at fault. They have watched as this debacle has played out, doing nothing. We have all seen the insecure “onboarding”, itself an inexplicable process, demanding sensitive and personal information.

Then there is the customer call line. No security questions, no security numbers, just your personal details discussed by anybody who happens to know your email address.

 You have all seen your accounts disappear, and then reappear, then double, as well as dividends unpaid.

All this from high end, extremely high rent, London offices, by a team that appears utterly incompetent, seemingly exempt from any requirement to turn a profit, or indeed, create any turnover, safe in the knowledge their rich, owner will underwrite any losses they incur.

This fiasco has played out while the FCA watched, and so, we must conclude with their approval. Should any other company behave in this manner the FCA will have no grounds for complaint. Having allowed it once, they will be in no position to complain.

And there lies my complaint. Should another foreign financier wish to use a small London financial institution to commit money laundering, the last few months have provided a blue print to do so. Thousands of accounts, with funds doubling, or disappearing, like fireworks in the night sky. Total disregard for basic GDPR compliance. Demanding bank account details, passports, all potentially useful for their purposes.  By a simple mix of apparent incompetence, bad communication and general obfuscation, such a company, copying this recent conduct, would be able to place and layer huge sums of money, presumably safe from any FCA interference.

Obviously ITI Capital is FCA approved, and is an entirely honorable company, but I write this to point out the impression their blistering incompetence gives, and the lack of confidence it creates in the FCA.

jenwrendorset

My2penneth said:

There are still people that have not even got access to their Phoenix accounts - unbelievable.

My ISA account never got past the on-boarding stage but to date it is the only one which has successfully transferred to iWeb. It took 36 days which by ITI standards must be considered a record.

jenwrendorset

My son has received 7 emails today from Accountmanagement, all with different CRM numbers, all identical, stating that they are 'reviewing his enquiry' - there has been no enquiry just a resending of a cash withdrawal form and that has now been paid into his account.

Sheris

The FCA stopped SVS from trading, my thoughts are the FCA should have stopped ITI from trading many weeks ago, still no progess for months now.
I had no problems with SVS on my trading and was doing very well in a small way. 
How the HELL has this been allowed to happen to many people being conned from our investments.

GeorgieC

 A few points here to cover a few posts above.
Phoenix is just a white labelled Interactive Brokers platform. IB are a huge and professional outfit, so anything on the platform will be administered properly such as dividends, but the platform is clunky and cross margining is horrendous as are their margin rates. The problems lie in activities via ITI such as deposits/withdrawals and so on.
QORT is an in house system built and administered in Moscow. I am pretty sure it is being used way beyond its intended capabilities. A lot of the input is manual hence the errors and/or omissions in admin tasks.
ISA accounts cannot be held on 'Phoenix' as IB wont take them, so all ISA's will be on QORT. Any product not listed on 'Phoenix' will also be left on QORT so accounts may be split across the two.
Several ITI staff will be wearing many hats... I believe corporate actions and transfers for example are the same person and so on.
I do not believe ITI will risk inactivity fees as a former entity (FXCM) went down that road and paid dearly for poor communication of their intentions and given their record of communicating I do not think ITI would risk it.....yet. Where their letter states the rate card could effectively change next year, keep a close eye on any new one!

GeorgieC

kronos67 said:

All this from high end, extremely high rent, London offices, 

The views however are spectacular!!

My2penneth

jenwrendorset said:

My son has received 7 emails today from Accountmanagement, all with different CRM numbers, all identical, stating that they are 'reviewing his enquiry' - there has been no enquiry just a resending of a cash withdrawal form and that has now been paid into his account.

Make a note of the CRM numbers...give it a couple of weeks, then ask ITI for an update, listing out the CRM numbers but nothing else. When they don't reply...it's the start of yet another FOS complaint. 

Clairabella

jenwrendorset said:

My son has received 7 emails today from Accountmanagement, all with different CRM numbers, all identical, stating that they are 'reviewing his enquiry' - there has been no enquiry just a resending of a cash withdrawal form and that has now been paid into his account.

I received three of the same today followed by a New Client Terms email. Sadly no money paid into my account yet though. How long ago did you submit the first withdrawal form? I’ve been waiting for over four weeks!