Greyfriars has IFISA permissions removed three years after administration
Greyfriars Asset Management has finally had its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) permissions revoked, three years after the company went into administration.
Greyfriars was one of the first financial services firms to receive IFISA permissions, soon after the tax wrapper was introduced in 2016.
However, that same year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) instructed the firm to stop accepting any new money into the Greyfriars Asset Management Portfolio Six on a permanent basis.
Portfolio Six was described as a discretionary managed investment portfolio made up of “non-correlated investments”. It is not clear whether Greyfriars used its IFISA permissions to offer the tax wrapper on these portfolio investments.
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On 31 March 2018, Greyfriars stopped offering discretionary fund management services, at which point clients transferred their portfolios out to an alternative provider or else became advisory clients of Greyfriars.
In October 2018, Greyfriars Asset Management was placed into administration and its financial advisor business was sold to Insight Financial Associates. Its self-invested personal pension (SIPP) and small self-administered scheme (SSAS) business was sold to Hartley Pensions.
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Following a slew of customer complaints, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) began accepting claims against Greyfriars in February 2019.
To date, the FSCS paid out £108,000 in compensation to 314 former SIPP clients of Greyfriars.
Greyfriars was among the first 12 firms to be granted permission to offer the IFISA tax wrapper, alongside Crowdstacker, Crowdcube, Crowd for Angels, Crowd2Fund, Property Partner, Link Financial Outsourcing, Resolution Compliance, Abundance Investment, Strand Capital, Blackfinch Investments, and Peregrine Asset Management.
Of these, just seven – Crowdstacker, Crowd for Angels, Crowd2Fund, Resolution Compliance, Blackfinch Investments, Crowdcube and Abundance Investment – have retained their IFISA manager status.
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