SVS Securities - shut down?

HSK91

Any idea how to prove shareholding and cash held in the svs accounts? I didn't download any of the certificates / statements

pafpcg

jamei305 wrote: »

Here: https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/svs-securities-plc-enters-administration

"Acting on intelligence received about the assets in which SVS invested its clients’ money, we conducted urgent supervisory work and identified serious concerns about the way in which the business was operating. "

That's surely outside the scope of SVS-XO's operations and must be one of the other SVS divisions, presumably "Advisory Trading". If the customer data and the associated assets held by SVS Nominees Ltd are clearly compartmentalised between SVS-XO and the trading operations of the other SVS divisions, then there's hope for a straightforward handover of SVS-XO to an external operator.

If anyone here is a client of SVS's Advisory Trading or Advisory ISA services, then things don't look so simple. And clients of SVS Forex Trading are gamblers anyway!

masonic

manorhouse wrote: »

Thanks for all the wise comments on svs and possible loss of money and shares.
I take it when you closed acc with them you went to i web .

Yes, and I've been more than happy there for a couple of years (my main portfolio is held over at interactive investor, who I don't recommend).

whats your take on Jarvis .

Given events at SVS, I'd be less inclined to use them than I was before. There is clearly more risk of them going to the wall than other companies with very similar pricing.

And the newish dutch one winning industry awards ( if that counts for anything )

Not sure exactly which one you mean, but "new" and "dutch" are red flags. I wouldn't hold significant investments with any firm that wasn't covered by the FSCS. Foreign protection schemes offer inferior protection in my view.

Awards are generally awarded in recognition of innovation and style, not robustness and security.

pafpcg

Reaper wrote: »

They all do. It seems a bit dodgy loaning out shares to those who want to short and therefore drive down the price of the shares held by customers. However the argument goes if they didn't lend them somebody else would and this way they can use the money it generates to keep customer fees low.

Strewth! That I didn't know and I'd say it was more than dodgy!

masonic

HSK91 wrote: »

Any idea how to prove shareholding and cash held in the svs accounts? I didn't download any of the certificates / statements

You shouldn't need to. If it came to it, I doubt such statements would be accepted as proof anyway. Obtaining a record of each client's positions and reconciling them against the assets held in the nominee companies will be a top priority for the administrators.

pafpcg wrote: »

That's surely outside the scope of SVS-XO's operations and must be one of the other SVS divisions, presumably "Advisory Trading". If the customer data and the associated assets held by SVS Nominees Ltd are clearly compartmentalised between SVS-XO and the trading operations of the other SVS divisions, then there's hope for a straightforward handover of SVS-XO to an external operator.

If anyone here is a client of SVS's Advisory Trading or Advisory ISA services, then things don't look so simple. And clients of SVS Forex Trading are gamblers anyway!

I think that is a fair assessment of the situation, it looks at this stage as though SVS XO is just a casualty of the parent company failing. It will be a few weeks before this is clarified though. Clients might be lucky enough to get an interim update ahead of the formal proposals which would come in around 8 weeks.

jamei305

pafpcg wrote: »

That's surely outside the scope of SVS-XO's operations and must be one of the other SVS divisions, presumably "Advisory Trading". If the customer data and the associated assets held by SVS Nominees Ltd are clearly compartmentalised between SVS-XO and the trading operations of the other SVS divisions, then there's hope for a straightforward handover of SVS-XO to an external operator.

If anyone here is a client of SVS's Advisory Trading or Advisory ISA services, then things don't look so simple. And clients of SVS Forex Trading are gamblers anyway!

Note this however when it comes to money: "on insolvency all designated segregated client money accounts are pooled and any segregated client is entitled to a share in the CMP on a pro-rata basis. Until the overall total of claims against the CMP are established, money cannot be returned to individual clients having a claim against the CMP"

This seems to imply if you had cash in SVS-XO you might be at risk of losing some of it if some of their other operations lost client cash.

masonic

jamei305 wrote: »

Note this however when it comes to money: "on insolvency all designated segregated client money accounts are pooled and any segregated client is entitled to a share in the CMP on a pro-rata basis. Until the overall total of claims against the CMP are established, money cannot be returned to individual clients having a claim against the CMP"

This seems to imply if you had cash in SVS-XO you might be at risk of losing some of it if some of their other operations lost client cash.

Also worth noting that there are two different nominee companies set up, one for unwrapped accounts and one for ISAs, so those would be (or at least could be) treated separately.

HSK91

Did anyone invest in the svs Bond 8.25%? It was due for redemption 30 June 2019, almost exactly one month before svs goes into administration.

[Deleted User]

I have learned so much from reading this thread. Thanks to all the wise and knowledgeable contributors. Hopefully those who have assets managed (or perhaps mismanaged) by SVS will be feeling slightly less worried and panicky as a result of the discussion on here.
The primary lesson from all this is the need to choose a platform very carefully. And not to be over-influenced by costs (I confess my guilt to that). Nevertheless, platform failures are a reality and not something which ordinary investors can totally guard against. Thank goodness for the financial regulators and the FSCS.
Going forward, it will be interesting to see how things progress, and how quickly, towards full satisfaction of all claims.

johnburman

To HSK91 query, like him I did not download the contract notes - no need they were on the website! (or so I thought until they closed it down). Scary times. So much for "segregated funds."