SVS Securities - shut down?

masonic

kencom said:

Advice required please.

I managed to FINALLY transfer all my cash & most of my holdings from ITI capital to my ii account, BUT i could not transfer 2 of my stocks due to the fact that they were suspended.

I’m hopeful these stocks will return to the market one day so I want to keep auditable possession of them. The trouble is I cannot get share certificates for either share & neither of these share companies are contactable.

When I transferred out of iti they could not transfer these shares, so I left my iti account open to keep the shares in that account.

I’ve contacted iti, but they have not replied.

Any advice greatly welcomed.

What are your ongoing costs for leaving them at ITI while suspended? It should still be possible to transfer a suspended holding as all that is required is for it to be reregistered to the new nominee. What does ii have to say about it? If it is an ii problem, then you might be able to withdraw in certificate form (has ITI said this cannot be done, or are you just struggling to get a response?), but if the cost of holding at ITI is low and you expect trading to resume, it may be less hassle to simply wait it out. Another route for information would be the registrar of the companies in question.

eskbanker

Perhaps rhetorical, but has anyone been contacted by ITI regarding how they propose to handle such holdings, given the requirement for them to close all open positions by the end of this month?

tonyb42

eskbanker said:

Perhaps rhetorical, but has anyone been contacted by ITI regarding how they propose to handle such holdings, given the requirement for them to close all open positions by the end of this month?

Currently going through this at the moment. The email of the shutdown was received a few weeks ago. I requested all cash was transferred out, sent completed id verification and forms and then waited another week and nothing! I had to phone them up from NZ to get a response and acknowledge that my cash transfer is being actioned. All the staff I've encountered have Russian names I've noticed and strong accents. Their broker report was littered with errors, some stocks missing and others incorrectly valued. I have to set a time for them call me so we can go through everything. Their online portal doesn't allow me to sell stocks so I am relying on the information to be correct before I instruct them to liquidate them. My cash account has gone up since, presumable by some dividend which I can't see, so it appears these are still being received. Looks like closure will happen before the next Shell dividend which will be a big one.

johnburman

Do report your difficulty to the FCA and remember to seek compensation from iti. If necessary by making a claim on the FOS. 

RasputinB

kencom said:

Advice required please.

I managed to FINALLY transfer all my cash & most of my holdings from ITI capital to my ii account, BUT i could not transfer 2 of my stocks due to the fact that they were suspended.

I’m hopeful these stocks will return to the market one day so I want to keep auditable possession of them. The trouble is I cannot get share certificates for either share & neither of these share companies are contactable.

When I transferred out of iti they could not transfer these shares, so I left my iti account open to keep the shares in that account.

I’ve contacted iti, but they have not replied.

Any advice greatly welcomed.

If there are delays in transferring your two suspended holdings to a new nominee then I would take the following steps -

Make sure that your correspondence with ITI on this matter has been escalated to an official complaint so that you can further escalate to the FOS.

Also take up directly with Leonard Curtis and be prepared to make a claim with the FSCS.  You will need to decide on the value of these holdings and if HMRC has given them a Nil Value then you may be best to just write them off. If they have value to you for tax losses in a different jurisdiction, or whatever, then work it out and make a claim on that basis. If ITI Capital goes into administration in due course or ceases to accept claims after their end date then you are prepared.

Depending on how things pan out with your escalation the FOS might instruct ITI to provide you with share certificates which should satisfy your auditable possession requirement.

Remember that this is a problem for ITI / LC / the FOS / FSCS. Objective 1 of the Judgment for Special Administration of SVS was to get the assets back to the clients. LC was responsible for doing that which is why I think you should take up with them. You may need to insist so first of all decide how much hassle you are prepared to take to keep these holdings.

You could check the list of SVS holdings from LC to see how many others hold the same shares.

Sheris

johnburman said:

Do report your difficulty to the FCA and remember to seek compensation from iti. If necessary by making a claim on the FOS. 

Complaints against ITI with the FOS are in a back log of 6 to 8 months and rising.  

johnburman

Still reports despite the delay 

jenwrendorset

kencom said:

Advice required please.

I managed to FINALLY transfer all my cash & most of my holdings from ITI capital to my ii account, BUT i could not transfer 2 of my stocks due to the fact that they were suspended.

I’m hopeful these stocks will return to the market one day so I want to keep auditable possession of them. The trouble is I cannot get share certificates for either share & neither of these share companies are contactable.

When I transferred out of iti they could not transfer these shares, so I left my iti account open to keep the shares in that account.

I’ve contacted iti, but they have not replied.

Any advice greatly welcomed.

Same problem here.  I initially posted here on 25 July (Pg 627) and followed RasputinB's advice however I have received no response from ITI despite giving them a deadline, in fact two deadlines, the second runs out tomorrow.  I included the FCA in my correspondence just to keep them in the loop.  I did wonder about contacting Mark Bentley at ShareSoc, he provided alot of help to ex-SVS clients who were struggling to free themselves from ITI, I would be interested to hear his thoughts on this.  My emails to ITI requested that they return my delisted shares in certified form which I didn't expect to be charged for - I doubt a telephone call would prove any more fruitful but guess I will have to go down that route as well.  My understanding is that LC should not have transferred these shares to ITI because ITI do not deal with AIM-listed shares however over they went and now they are stuck.

jenwrendorset

eskbanker said:

Perhaps rhetorical, but has anyone been contacted by ITI regarding how they propose to handle such holdings, given the requirement for them to close all open positions by the end of this month?

Not a dicky bird

johnburman

I was wondering if you could complain to the London Stock Exchange but on their Website under Retail Brokers, ITI is not listed.

So it's a yet further complaint for compensation from the FOS: and here you are suffering a real loss so claim it.  Also of course tell the FSA