Eight financial services firms are to be wound up after the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) followed up consumer warnings with winding up petitions to the Insolvency and Companies Court. The eight firms appear to be connected.
The Official Receiver will now proceed with liquidation of the eight firms. Named as:
- Cavendish Incorporated Ltd
- Cottesmore Associates Ltd
- Marvell Enterprises Ltd
- Grosvenor Associates Ltd
- Renaissance Advisory Ltd
- Falcon Financial Services Ltd
- Thestral Financial Services Ltd
- Semantic Business Services Ltd
The FCA says it believed the firms “posed a significant risk to consumers” and that they failed to respond to communications from the regulator.
“None of the firms have ever been permitted to provide regulated investment services and we are aware that consumers may have invested substantial sums with at least two of the firms (Cavendish and Marvell),” the FCA said.
Compensation
Consumers affected may be able to claim compensation under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which has already set up dedicated pages for claims against Cavendish, Cottesmore and Marvell.
In its press release, the FCA said it had previously issued warnings about the firms. In August it warned that Cavendish and Cottesmore had never “been permitted by the FCA to provide regulated investment services”.
Permission to carry out regulated activities was removed from Marvell in November 2021, and from Grosvenor and Renaissance in December 2021 when connections with Marvell were discovered. Falcon and Thestral had permissions removed in January 2022 when connections with Cavendish were discovered.
And Semantic had permissions removed in April 2022 when connections to another firm that had been a subject of an FCA consumer warning, Sentor Solutions Commercial Ltd, were discovered. In that notice the FCA mentioned its belief that the named firms “may be part of a network of credit brokers that are offering investments to consumers which may not be protected”.
An initial scan of Companies House information reveals a number of addresses in London and Essex coming up multiple times in information held about the firms.