DeVere clone among latest batch of FCA warnings

The Financial Conduct Authority issued warnings on 12 unauthorised and ‘cloned’ firms last week, including one clone firm that has been set up to appear to be part of the DeVere group but that is not regulated.

The regulator warned against five clone firms that are using names designed to imply they are related to authorised entities, namely:

• DeVere & Partners UK Ltd operating out of London;

• SFVA Finance operating out of Hampshire;

• Astorg Partners operating out of London;

• Benefit Planners Intl operating out of Belgium; and

• Corestone Distributors.

There were also seven warnings issued in relation to the following unauthorised firms:

• Independent Carbon;

• John Fletcher Financial Management Ltd;

• Empire Global Group LLC / EG International;

• NetoTrade UK LTD and NetoTrade Global Investments Ltd;

• Apollo Financial Management;

• Hayes Associates; and

• Emerald Securities.

Investors dealing with any of the above firms will not have recourse to help from the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the regulator said.

This week’s set of warnings was preceded by 11 other such warnings published last week.