SVS Securities - shut down?

My2penneth

"Failed wealth manager owes HMRC almost £800,000" ..

Wouldn't HMRC be first in line for payment. The money would be taken from SVS' bank account but I doubt they could touch client assets. Anyway, even if they did/could , it would be about £38 per person ..of which FSCS would cough up.

I don't know what an "interest broker" is though? ;-) I'm sure that many investment brokers though would like to get our assets under management so maybe they are "interest" brokers...certainly interested!

masonic

HMRC is only a preferential creditor in respect of tax collected for PAYE and VAT.

Ibs7491

Hi all I have in the last few days discovered this site and am grateful for all the information gleaned from it,on checking phone messages had a call from a James Parker in regards to svs in administration anyone else had contact with the above..

My2penneth

I would not enter into conversation with anyone (J Parker).

There is no need to - simple as that.

johnburman

Good advice from My2penneth IMHO. Only speak to LC and no one else - it is simply too dangerous otherwise.

But where is the promised portal ? And who is the prefered chosen broker?

Ibs7491

Thanks for the advice,just received 4emails from svs about a share consolidation in a company I have shares in so things are happening hopefully not to long until we know what’s going to happen....

Danie5

Last month I understood that a new broker would be appointed by 31 October 2019. Nothing happened and I made an enquiry. I was told that the new portal would be operative by this time and LC was still negotiating with a broking firm. Now we get only silence and nothing happens. When this situation will be resolved is anybody's guess.
I wonder how one can learn from this and avoid such a mess in future. Brokers that go belly up seems to become a fashion. We've had Beaufort Securities, then SVS and recently Reyker Securities. In each case the vultures are thriving as they can prey on clients' assets and they don't care to take their time. Time is money. In the case of Beaufort Securities PWC kicked off with an estimate of four years to finish their job!
Many moons ago when I started trading shares there were no nominee companies under control of the broking firm as far as I can remember and shares were registered in the shareholder's name. You could then sell your shares through the bank or any other broking firm. I wonder if it is not the way to go in future and also keep your cash separate in your own bank account? Just asking.

johnburman

Danie5 makes a good point

Problem is that ISAs' insist that you use a nominee account. Issue is that ringfencing using a nominee account is simply not robust enough. And the CASS rules shoudl infuture allow transfers of all shares (and monies?) in a nominee account to a bnew broker within 24 hours - not 6 months.

As for the silence of LC, this is something that is common. My view - criticised on this forum - is that despite the fact they are well known administrators are simply not up to the takk of administering this . I got the hint early when they were talking abou the huge sixe of accounts, when in fact there are *only* c 20k clients. My view was and is they are out of their depth.

We need to raise this with the FSCS who are essentially paying for most of - not 100%, but close to that - the costs. As you (and others) have pointed out, the longer it goes on the more the costs

rnf11

Danie5;


Re your last paragraph.



You still can do just that, there are still brokers in the market providing that service. Also, if you do have a nominee using broker (eg online) then you can get your holding(s) certificated.



You might not be so enthusiastic about the fees, however......

Danie5

I enquired about the client portal and new broker and got the following message:
"Unfortunately due to the considerable number of open trades which had to be cancelled and reversed prior to statements being available the operation of the portal will not take place until late next week. Letters containing log in details and passwords will be sent shortly before hand.
There is now a shortlist of 2 candidates to take over the portfolios and we hope to be in a position to finalise this in the next few weeks, subject to contract.
We are still envisaging a transfer to an alternative broker in Q1 2020."

Looks like we will have to wait a little longer now. I wonder what Winterflood is doing about the open trades. They do not reply to my enquiries.