A troubled discretionary fund manager has been declared insolvent after the FCA expressed concerns over the future of client assets.
The regulator applied to the High Court to place Beaufort Securities Limited and Beaufort Asset Clearing Services Limited into insolvency after assessing the firms’ finances.
The regulator had previously limited the London-based DFM’s permissions so that it could not take on new business, and required FCA permission before acting on IFA instructions.
In a stock exchange announcement this morning, the FCA said it had now ordered the firm to cease all regulated activity and not to dispose of any client assets without its consent.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has been appointed as the administrators.
The FCA says it “considers it necessary for insolvency practitioners to take over the running of the firms in order to protect assets from dissipation and protect the customers of both firms”.
The collapse comes on the back of another London-based DFM, Strand Capital, last year, over which the Financial Services Compensation Scheme says it expects to pay out at least £6m in compensation.
