SVS Securities administration process set to conclude in early 2022

The Joint Special Administrators of SVS Securities have provided an update to clients of the company.

The Administrators currently anticipate that the administration process will be concluded in early 2022.

Once the administration has been concluded and the Administrators have obtained their discharge of liability, the Administrators will no longer be able to process and respond to client information requests or Data Subject Access Requests (“DSAR”). Clients are therefore encouraged to contact the Administrators as soon as possible in case they wish to make a request to obtain any of their client account information from SVS.

Should you require any information in relation to your former SVS client account, please email the administration at svs(at)leonardcurtis.co.uk with a request together with a valid form of ID.

Clients are entitled to make a claim to the FSCS for any losses which they may have incurred because of negligence or mis-selling by the Company prior to the administration. Should any client wish to make a claim to the FSCS, please note that there is a cap on the amount of compensation which you are able to claim which is £85,000.

Let’s recall that SVS Securities plc was placed in Special Administration by its directors in August 2019. Andrew Duncan, Andrew Poxon and Alex Cadwallader, of Leonard Curtis Recovery Ltd were appointed Special Administrators of SVS.

SVS Securities plc is a wealth management firm that offers a range of services to its clients, including advisory stockbroking, online share dealing, Forex trading and discretionary fund management services.

The directors of SVS decided to place the firm in Special Administration. This was following action taken by the Financial Conduct Authority to place requirements on SVS, stopping it from conducting regulated activities and restricting it from disposing of assets. The FCA took these steps after it identified serious concerns about the way the business was operating. As a result, the directors obtained solvency advice and resolved to place the firm into Special Administration.

In August 2021, the joint special administrators confirmed that, other than a very small number of exceptions, the full Custody Asset and Client Money entitlements of Clients have been or are expected to be returned in accordance with the Regulations. For the vast majority of Clients, their Custody Assets and Client Money have been returned in accordance with the Regulations by way of transfer to ITI on the Transfer Date.

The very small number of exceptions for whom the full entitlement of Custody Assets or Client Money will not be returned relate to Clients who are not FSCS eligible (less than 1% of the total Clients).

The legislation governing the special administration regime provides that the costs of returning custody assets are to be paid out of the custody assets. In respect of client money, the legislation requires the costs of returning client money to be deducted in a manner that results in every client having its entitlement to client money reduced by the same percentage. This means that the costs of returning Custody Assets and/or Client Money are ultimately borne by the company’s clients.

At this stage, the overall costs of returning Custody Assets and Client Money are still to be determined. In accordance with the Distribution Plan, the costs will be a fixed, capped cost per client for Custody Assets and a percentage of Client Money.