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SIPP supplier DAC Pensions – which had greater than 600 purchasers and practically £27m in property below administration – has been declared in default by the FSCS, opening the door to compensation claims.
The FSCS mentioned it had obtained 482 claims in opposition to DAC Pensions (FRN 774721), all linked to SIPPs.
Up to now, 4 of the claims have been unsuccessful however the first one has been upheld which has triggered the default being declared yesterday.
A declaration of default by the FSCS opens the door to compensation claims which the supplier can not pay.
The FCA ordered the Cambridgeshire-based SIPP supplier to be positioned into insolvency in August 2021 after the agency accepted enterprise from unauthorised introducers with out the right vetting required by the FCA.
The agency had 607 purchasers and administered property of £26.7m, in line with a supervisory discover printed by the regulator.
The FCA mentioned the DAC Pensions, authorised by the FCA since September 2017, failed to hold out sufficient due diligence checks on two introducer companies previous to accepting enterprise from them.
This meant that the agency didn’t establish whether or not the introducers had the suitable FCA permissions to supply non-insurance-based pension recommendation.
The agency accepted roughly 620 new purchasers with property below administration of £20.4m from introducers based mostly in Eire and Cyprus. The introducers had been ‘passporting’ into the UK on the time.
The FCA added that DAC Pensions additionally accepted enterprise from one introducer regardless of being “explicitly knowledgeable” that it lacked the suitable permissions to supply pension recommendation.
The regulator mentioned that because of accepting the enterprise from the introducers, DAC Pensions’ clients had been directed to speculate their SIPPs in high-risk, illiquid investments by way of a mannequin portfolio operated by the 2 introducer companies.
Numerous these investments had been unregulated collective funding schemes (“UCIS”) based mostly abroad which had been unlikely to be appropriate for retail purchasers.
Numerous these UCIS have since been unable to fulfill redemption requests for a big interval with out rationalization. The redemption points had been additionally not communicated to clients in a well timed method. The regulator warned in 2021 that it expects clients might lose “some or the entire cash” they’ve invested into these UCIS.
The FCA additionally reprimanded DAC Pensions for failing to jot down to clients to completely inform them of the state of affairs and current them with all attainable criticism choices.
The FSCS apologised to clients of the agency that intensive investigations into the corporate had been taking longer than anticipated.
In February this yr the FSCS accomplished its investigations into DAC Pensions. Its investigations had been primarily centered on introducer due diligence undertaken by DAC, previous to accepting enterprise from Elliot Lloyd Worldwide (previously Walker Murray) based mostly in Eire, and Woodbrook based mostly in Cyprus.
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