SVS Securities - shut down?

Sheris

RasputinB said:

pafpcg said:

Have those that are complaining about LC's choices forgotten what the role of the administrator is in the liquidation of a company?  The primary objective is to maximise the return for the creditors of the liquidated company ...

The following is from the court judgement of Mr Justice Miles - "Regulation 10 provides that a special administrator has three special administration objectives. Objective 1 is to ensure the return of client assets as soon as is reasonably practicable".

Totally correct with your statement and the FCA gave the authorization for ITI.
The FCA have the responsibility to the clients in the first case, the chosen few that where on the administers committee is very alarming to say the lease with there selection.          

johnburman

I wonder if LC did or were under a duty to do diligence on iti prior to the sale to them of the 18k SVS clients once the FCA didn't object to the deal? Yes iti were regulated by the FCA and had the cash, but they didn't have the staff or systems to deal with the new XO clients. Who checked up on that? 

reg_capitulation

Did anyone else manage to get a REPORT ON OPERATIONS AND TRANSACTIONS from ITI?  

Thrugelmir

johnburman said:

 but they didn't have the staff or systems to deal with the new XO clients. Who checked up on that? 

In the midst of Covid difficult to see any broking operation having the staff resources. They could of course done nothing, instead waited until the pandemic passed and lockdown was lifted. 

Sheris

Thrugelmir said:

johnburman said:

 but they didn't have the staff or systems to deal with the new XO clients. Who checked up on that? 

In the midst of Covid difficult to see any broking operation having the staff resources. They could of course done nothing, instead waited until the pandemic passed and lockdown was lifted. 

Other brokers had no major problems and the London Stock Exchange had no major issues.
ITI continued as they started doing nothing and still in progress.  

RasputinB

Having been involved with dealing with ITI and having had first hand experience of their slapdash accounting systems I don't think the Covid excuse helps them much. Remember too that even the FCA has taken some action by stopping ITI from taking on further new clients. Has the FCA done that with any, or many, other broking operation having trouble with staff resources due to Covid?

Whilst LC may not have had a legal responsibility to assist ITI with staff beyond the date stipulated in the court document I believe they could have done a lot to help alleviate our problems but chose not to. If you do some research I am sure that you will find that LC had capable SVS administration staff available (they are now redundant).

RasputinB

Many of us have raised complaints with the FOS and I have noticed that at least one of their ombudsman regularly states that "I must take into account the relevant law, regulation and best industry practice, but I’m not bound by this."
It seems strange to me that an ombudsman can choose to disregard law and regulation when reaching his decisions.
Comments please!

eskbanker

RasputinB said:

Many of us have raised complaints with the FOS and I have noticed that at least one of their ombudsman regularly states that "I must take into account the relevant law, regulation and best industry practice, but I’m not bound by this."
It seems strange to me that an ombudsman can choose to disregard law and regulation when reaching his decisions.
Comments please!

The way I've always understood that stance is that FOS don't only expect institutions to act in accordance with the law but also best practice, fairness, etc, i.e. not disregarding law and regulation but adding to it.  I'd have thought that this would typically be in the consumer's favour, are there examples you're thinking of where it goes the other way?

RasputinB

eskbanker said:

RasputinB said:

ombudsman regularly states that "I must take into account [ ] best industry practice, but I’m not bound by this."

The way I've always understood that stance is that FOS don't only expect institutions to act in accordance with the law but also best practice, fairness, etc, i.e. not disregarding law and regulation but adding to it....

Thank you for your response. So you think the ombudsman means he is not limited to best industry practice but can decide that the company should do even better?

Michael_Reynolds

I'm back after many months on my travels around the brokerage world! I finally managed to move everything out of the accursed ITI.. Out of the 15 securities at ITI, 1 went to Swissquote and fourteen were supposed to go to Interactive. IB confirmed that all 14 were registered in their database. They only accepted 12 on settlement!

I moved the two securities that were left behind at ITI to Exante who provide an excellent personal service.

Three months on and IB have been a total nighmare to deal with. There is Zero customer service. Everything is electronic. Their support service seems to be based in India and the local country customer support phone line nevers answers. You have to raise online tickets and these take for ever to resolve.

I hesitate to say this but not only do ITI & IB share the same IT system they also share something else in common and that is the their absymal customer support. I have now moved the 1 security at Swissquote (an old fashioned slow service runs by doddery old bankers in Luxembourg) plus the 12 at IB to Exante. This means the whole portfolio is now consolidated again at Exante. Whooppee just like it was two years ago at SVS Securities before the FCA and their friends at Leonard Curtis stepped in and ruined the party!

I still have cash at IB and that is proving a problem to move. The first sterling transfer setup on 26/2 arrived quick enough at Exante but there was a minor detail problem with the SWIFT information that IB provided. Exante's bankers sent three messages to IB via SWIFT requesting confirmation. These were totally ignored by IB. Ten days later I got a notification from IB stating that the transfer had been rejected by Exante's bankers and the funds were returned to my IB account MINUS fees of course. I now have proof that IB lied. The truth is they cancelled the payment without my authority. I have lodged a complaint with the regulator and am considering litigation. IB are extremely arrogant. They believe they can run a worldwide brokerage entirely electronically and without the need for anything more than an online questions and answers help facility. They are not prepared to provide any type of cognisant human client support.

Once my account is finally closed at IB I never want to have anything to do with them again. My nightmare experiences at IB and ITI have been extremely similar. They share a great deal in common.