Regulator opens probe into City broker SVS Securities as it falls into administration
Stockbroker SVS Securities has collapsed into administration and will face a regulatory investigation amid “serious concerns” about its business.
Administrators at Leonard Curtis have been appointed to take control of the City-based broker and are exploring options including a sale, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said in a statement.
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It comes after the FCA placed a ban on SVS conducting regulated activities and restricted it from disposing of its own or its clients’ assets.
The regulator said it has also launched a probe into the broker over unspecified concerns about the way it had invested clients’ money.
“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,” it said.
SVS, which was founded in 2003, offers online execution-only and Forex trading in addition to traditional stockbroking. The firm has 95 employees listed on Linkedin.
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FCSC), which protects consumers when financial services firms fail, will review whether SVS clients are eligible for compensation for any losses.
SVS has previously been implicated in a VAT scam involving the trading of carbon credits, permits which allow a country or organisation to emit greenhouse gases.
An investigation published by City PM and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed the broker sold more than 24m credits to Deutsche Bank over a 23-day period despite concerns about their legitimacy.
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SVS has denied being a knowing party in the fraud and denied its traders “deliberately closed their minds or failed to ask questions”.
SVS could not be reached for comment.
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