KBW Associates Ltd

13 Nov, 2019

Claims made against KBW Associates Ltd have now all been moved to our claims processing teams for assessment. Decisions on these claims will be sent out shortly.

As we outlined in our previous update, we’re aware that FCA authorised advisers may have recommended customers invest with KBW Associates Ltd. Or they may have recommended transferring existing pensions or investments through a self-invested personal pension (SIPP). 

If this applies to you and the adviser is still trading, you need to complain to that adviser. If the adviser rejects the complaint, you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). After adjudication from the FOS, you can make a claim with us.

If, however, the advice came from an FCA authorised adviser that’s now not trading, you should firstly submit a claim to FSCS against the financial adviser.

If you think you’ve got a claim, click the ‘Check you can claim’ button to start the process.  

24 Oct, 2019

In November, claims against KBW Associates Ltd will be passed to our claims processing team for assessment. This is because we’ve concluded that KBW Associates Ltd may owe a civil liability to its customers. Or in other words, that there’s the potential the firm could be sued in court.

We’re currently finalising our approach to how we’ll deal with these claims. Each claim will need to be considered individually to see if compensation is due.

To consider claims against a failed firm, we’ve got to be sure that customers have first tried every approach to claim against any connected firm that's still trading, and have been unsuccessful.

We’re aware that FCA authorised advisers may have recommended customers invest with KBW Associates Ltd. Or they may have recommended transferring existing pensions or investments through a self-invested personal pension (SIPP).  

If this applies to you and the adviser is still trading, you need to complain to that adviser.  If the adviser rejects the complaint, you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). 

If, however, the advice came from an FCA authorised adviser that’s now not trading, you should firstly submit a claim to FSCS against the financial adviser.

FSCS considers different factors when calculating losses on pension advice (a claim against financial advisers) compared to discretionary fund manager investments (a claim against discretionary fund managers, in this case KBW Associates Ltd).

This means you may be eligible to receive more compensation for any losses by claiming against your financial adviser, compared to making a claim against your discretionary fund manager.

If you think you’ve got a claim, click the 'Check you can claim' button to start the process.

19 Aug, 2019

FSCS is continuing its investigation into the practices of KBW Associates to determine whether claims exist in relation to the firm’s practices. Our investigation is focusing on the relationships between KBW Associates and other authorised and unauthorised firms involved in transferring customers’ pensions. FSCS is also considering the level of commission that KBW Associates and associated firms took.

FSCS is accepting claims involving the firm, but any claims received will not immediately be passed to our claims processing teams for assessment. Firstly, FSCS needs to establish whether there are protected claims involving KBW Associates. For this to happen we need to know that the firm owes a civil liability to customers in respect of investment services it provided.

In our previous update we had targeted to complete our initial investigations by the end of August 2019. Due to the nature of this investigation, however, it is taking longer than we had anticipated. We hope to complete our initial investigation by the end of November 2019.

18 Jun, 2019

Although FSCS is accepting claims against KBW, claims have not yet been passed to our claims processing teams for assessment. This is because we are still carrying out investigations into the activities of KBW.

Firstly, we need to establish whether there are ‘protected claims’ against KBW. For this to happen we need to know that KBW owes a civil liability to customers that would enable them to sue the firm in court.

Importantly, this civil liability must be in connection with a regulated activity carried out by the firm. Currently our investigations are focussing on the activities carried out by KBW and whether the firm was acting outside its permissions.

In addition we're looking into the business model KBW operated. We're particularly interested in the relationships KBW had with other authorised and unauthorised firms. This analysis will help us reach a view on what regulatory breaches may have occurred.

We hope to have concluded our initial investigations by the end of August 2019, at which time claims will be passed to our claims processing teams for assessment.