The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed restrictions on wholesale broker IBP Markets Limited on September 15, 2023. This is due to regulatory concerns about the company's business behavior and considerations for protecting customer funds.
Subsequently, regulatory authorities have stopped IBP Markets from conducting regulated activities and prevented them from depreciating their assets, customer funds, and custody assets without their consent.
FCA had previously collaborated with IBP Markets to address concerns about its business operations, which led to the company voluntarily limiting its regulated activities in May 2023. However, due to subsequent concerns about customer fund protection, the FCA decided to prevent the company from carrying out regulated activities.
According to Bloomberg, at the beginning of this year, FCA took action against IBP Markets to restrict its business activities. These restrictions are based on concerns that the company may not be able to verify customer assets and the completeness of the information used for verification. In addition, the FCA is concerned that the company may be involved in financial crimes.
Given these limitations and in order to safeguard the interests of clients, the directors of IBP Markets have applied to place the company under special management. On October 13, 2023, the court appointed David Philip Soden and James Robert Bennett from Teneo Financial Advisory Limited as joint special administrators.
According to the documents prepared for the court hearing, IBP Markets holds a significant amount of client assets, including approximately £ 36 million ($44 million) of client funds and £ 653 million of client custody assets. Customers, including wealth management companies and professional companies, will receive advice on special management processes within eight weeks of the appointment of the manager. This will include information on how to file a claim.
Special management is a bankruptcy procedure designed for investment companies, where the court appoints a special administrator to control and manage the operations of the bankrupt company. The purpose is to accelerate the process of returning funds to customers, securely storing assets, and having relevant authorities rescue or close the company.
