FSCS pays out £27mn on Beaufort Securities

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FSCS pays out £27mn on Beaufort Securities

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has paid out a total of £27mn on claims made against stockbroker Beaufort Securities Limited.

The lifeboat fund told FTAdviser that of the 3,000 claims it has received against Beaufort Securities Limited, it has compensated just under 50 per cent of them, with 10 per cent still being reviewed.

The FSCS said the compensation paid out largely relates to mis-selling claims.

Beaufort Securities Limited, and its sister company Beaufort Asset Clearing Services Limited, were placed in administration by UK regulators in March 2018 shortly after the US Department of Justice brought criminal charges against the latter for its alleged involvement in securities fraud and money laundering.

Russell Downs, Dan Schwarzmann and Nigel Rackham of accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers were appointed as joint administrators of Beaufort Securities and joint special administrators of Beaufort Asset Clearing Services on March 2, 2018. 

In April 2018, Beaufort Securities was declared in default by the FSCS.

Beaufort Asset Clearing Services Limited provided the clearing and custody services to Beaufort Securities Limited.

For Beaufort Asset Clearing Services Limited, the FSCS has so far paid out £50.3mn.

The lifeboat fund said this enabled the return of all or substantially all of client portfolios to over 99 per cent of clients.

National advice firm AFH bought the client book of the Colwyn Bay office of Beaufort Securities from PwC in September 2018.

The consolidator agreed to pay £250,000 for the client portfolios, which at the time added £130m to AFH's funds under management.

sonia.rach@ft.com

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