Brokers

Offer for Share Centre Canned and Changes at Charles Stanley

Post Date: May 9, 2019

Interactive Investor Services have announced they do not intend to make an offer for the Share Centre (Share Plc – SHRE) as previously mooted. That’s probably a relief for users of that platform. But users of the Charles Stanley (CAY) broking services may have concerns as the company announced this morning that they are going to simplify and standardise their service to cut costs and improve the service to clients. Some staff will be cut but the impact on customers is not ...

FCA Makes Platform Switching Easier

Post Date: March 14, 2019

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have today announced some measures to improve competition in the platforms market. Experienced investors who use electronic trading platforms will be well aware of the problems of switching to another provider if they are dissatisfied with the service, wish to move to a cheaper provider or for other reasons such as consolidating on one provider or spreading their risk over several. It simply takes too long to move “in-specie” holdings from one platform to another ̶ ...

Missing Dividends

Post Date: November 22, 2018

I talked about having too much cash in my ISA and SIPP accounts in my last blog post. But in fact it’s not as much as it should be because dividends on my ISA holdings in JPMorgan Japan Smaller Companies Trust (JPS) did not arrive as expected. They should have been paid on the 7th November, and were on my direct holding on the register but not on my ISA ones. The ISA ones are held in two different ISA accounts ...

Too Much Cash, Wey Education and Patisserie Accounts

Post Date: November 22, 2018

Are you stacked up with cash in your ISAs, SIPPs, and direct portfolios? As a dedicated follower of fashion (if the markets are falling as investors sell, then so do I) it is of some concern that the cash is not earning any interest. There was some relatively good news yesterday from soon to be listed A.J.Bell Youinvest. They are increasing the interest they pay on cash held in portfolios. Previously you got 0.05% on balances more than £50,000. It will ...

Time to open an account with AJ Bell?

Post Date: September 23, 2018

Please note that ShareSoc does not recommend particular platforms, but aims to keep members aware of their relative merits. The Daily Mail reports today https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/comment/article-6196807/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Investing-platform-sends-message-clear-Bell.html the good news that: "AJ Bell has decided that its customers should not be left out of the impending stock market party. Anyone who has an account with the platform when October 15 comes around will be eligible to apply for shares(minimum of £1,000). While AJ Bell is dwarfed by Hargreaves Lansdown – and probably always will be – the ...

ShareSoc will Demand Action from the FCA over Account Switching Delays

Post Date: February 22, 2018

Earlier this month I read this Times article concerning disgruntled clients of Barclays' Smart Investor platform. It highlights once again the longstanding issue that changing your provider of share trading services (stockbroker or platform) is often a painful process. It is not unusual for the switch to take several months, during which you may not be able to sell shares that you own or access funds held in your account. I find this unacceptable in the 21st century, when modern IT systems ought ...

ShareDeal Active Nominee Account

Post Date: September 10, 2017

I have (belatedly) decided to register with PrimaryBid and spotted that if I would you like my shares to be settled and delivered to my Stockbroker TD Waterhouse electronically,...

Another Financial Services Scandal: Broker Fined

Post Date: August 20, 2017

A second Broker that has been fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission for years of committing ADR Securities Violations. This is yet another example of the unacceptable behaviour and bad culture that has pervaded far too many financial services organisations (and arguably still does). In this case Banca IMI Securities Corp issued ADRs even though it did not own the underlying shares. This made it possible for such ADRs to be used for inappropriate short selling or inappropriate profiting around dividend ...

TD Direct & the FCA – Update

Post Date: July 18, 2017

There have been further developments since my original blog post, on the topic of changes to TD Direct's client monies policy, which cause me to re-examine the issue and its implications. Firstly, I am pleased that Interactive Investor, TD Direct's new owner, have responded to my post, as follows: Interactive Investor’s primary responsibility is the security of a client’s data, cash and assets. Current FCA rules state that client money must not be placed out on unbreakable deposits of more than 30 days. ...

Our Risk, Their Gain: TD Direct & the FCA

Post Date: July 9, 2017

Thursday last, I was somewhat shocked to receive the following missive from one of my brokers, TD Direct (now owned by Interactive Investor): The key paragraph is this: To ensure we maintain our ability to appropriately diversify client money across highly rated, strongly capitalised banks, our regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has given us, and other similar firms, permission to deposit some of our client monies in fixed term deposits for up to 95 days. This is a change to the current ...

Brokers

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