At last Payouts have been made to Myself from FSCS

Dear all,

I would like to thank you all for your patience and would like to confirm that i have received payouts from FSCS. All the members that signed up for the petition have all been kept informed. Please let me know
if you have any other questions and I will try and help you in the best possible way.

At least stage 1 has been completed.

kind regards
Rav

If you have lost less than 70K --We need to take action

Dear all,

I am in as much shock as you are about how this particular creditors meeting went. I am putting together a case for the monies less than 70K to be recovered without any further delay.
I too do not understand how RBS can make a claim on funds that are illegally transferred from the clients to the company’s accounts. Personally this has come to a stage where we will be taking legal action.
At current one of the priorities should be for the fscs to return the compensation up to 50k to as many clients as possible and this is more than 70% of the clients. Why not put their minds at rest ?
I will draw up a petition and write to the authorities on your behalf
Please email me in the following format :
Name :
Email  Address:
Approx Amount lost:
I will compile a full report and send this of in the best possible manner.
If you do not wish to disclose your name please just send me your Worldspreads Account Number

THERE IS NO REASON AT ALL THAT THE 70% OF THE CLIENTS SHOULD SUFFER ANY FURTHER DELAY.
I will take this all the way to the media and show them how inconsiderate the schemes are in todays world.

Kind Regards
Rav
nshah10@hotmail.com

The administrators hope to begin payouts to creditors in September, but warned that the process could be held up further.

ALMOST ALL 15,000 clients of collapsed financial spread-betting firm Worldspreads are covered by a compensation scheme operated by its UK regulator.
The Irish-headquartered Worldspreads plc group collapsed in March when the board discovered a £13 million (€16.15 million) shortfall in client funds in its main operating business, London-based Worldspreads Ltd. The company owed its clients £29.7 million but had just £16.6 million to pay them.
Yesterday, the UK financial services authority confirmed that almost all Worldspreads’ 15,000 clients qualified for a statutory compensation scheme established to protect customers of financial services firms.
The financial services compensation scheme covers losses up to £50,000.
Worldspreads owed about 80 clients more than £50,000. In their case, the compensation scheme will pay them £50,000, and they will be able to recover a portion of the balance from a pool established by the special administrators who took over the company in March.
The pool will be established from the company’s remaining resources and those clients will be repaid on a pro-rata basis. In other words, if the pool covers 50 per cent of the company’s liabilities, they will be paid 50 per cent of the figure due to them above £50,000.

ETX Capital is poised to complete a deal that will rescue some of the wreckage from the collapse of spread-betting rival WorldSpreads.

The City firm considered buying the entire business at first but backed away after finding the losses at WorldSpreads too onerous to make a deal viable.
WorldSpreads collapsed in March after uncovering “financial irregularities” that left its customers facing losses of £13 million.
ETX is now poised to take control of the Greek, Spanish and Danish arms of WorldSpreads, profitable concerns said to be free of the investigation that is focussed on the London business.
It is expected to get FSA backing soon and could confirm the plans this week.
The deal will save a small number of jobs.
More than 60% of WorldSpreads’ revenues came from overseas. ETX itself has already expanded successfully into Germany and South Africa.
Those close to the process say ETX could have taken over WorldSpreads for a nominal £1 if it had agreed to make client positions good.
It is likely that both the Financial Services Authority and administrators KPMG would have backed such a deal. But the scope of the losses made this hard to justify, say those close to the process.
ETX also made an offer to buy the client base. However, World Spreads’ own terms and conditions with its clients prevented the transfer of client details to another provider. Its client list included some big names in the world of spread betting, including Simon Cawkwell, the self-styled "Evil Knievil" investor.
WorldSpreads says it owes clients £29.7 million but had cash balances of only £16.6 million.
Clients can expect to recover the first £50,000 of money they had on account under the regulatory compensation scheme, but the rest will be lost.
Chief executive Conor Foley left the company just before the losses were unveiled saying he had other “entrepreneurial” interests to pursue.

Maloney to investigate Worldspreads collapse

ACCOUNTANT GEORGE Maloney is to investigate the collapse of spread trading group Worldspreads, after being appointed liquidator to two of its key companies yesterday.
Worldspreads collapsed dramatically in March when its board discovered a €15.6 million-plus shortfall in client funds.
A creditors’ meeting in Dublin yesterday appointed insolvency specialist George Maloney, of Baker Tilly Ryan Glennon, to Worldspreads Group plc and Worldspreads International Ltd.
Following the meeting, Mr Maloney confirmed he will be carrying out an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the demise of both companies. His appointment means that the spread trading group’s collapse is now the subject of two investigations in two different jurisdictions.
Shortly after the collapse in March, the UK authorities appointed Jane Moriarty and Samantha Bewick of KPMG as special administrators to Worldspreads Ltd, which was based in London and played a central role in the group’s operations.
Part of their brief is to investigate the directors’ conduct and the circumstances surrounding the collapse of the business.
Mr Maloney said yesterday that he would be communicating with the special administrators shortly.
The two investigations are likely to feed into each other as it is understood that there were substantial transactions between various companies in the group.
Worldspreads chairman Lindsay McNeile attended yesterday’s meeting. He said afterwards that, on legal advice and to avoid any risk of prejudice to any investigations, he declined to answer any substantive questions. He made no comment following the meeting.
Former chief executive Conor Foley also attended. He did not issue a statement afterwards.
The board discovered the £13 million shortfall in Worldspreads Ltd in mid-March. The company owed clients £29.7 million, but had just £16.6 million to pay them.
The shortfall emerged as the board was preparing the ground for incoming interim chief executive Roger Hynes.
Mr Foley had resigned as chief executive days earlier to pursue other interests. Finance director Niall O’Kelly left the group in February.
Mr Foley had an 18 per cent stake in the group. In March, both he and the board said that his resignation had nothing to do with the crisis that unfolded following his departure.
He and Mr O’Kelly helped found the business in Dublin in 2000. It floated on the Irish and London stock exchanges seven years later. It spun off its Irish business and moved operations to London to focus on expanding in the British and European markets.

Worldspreads special administrators publish first creditors’ report

The special administrators of Worldspreads have today published the first creditors’ report, in accordance with their statutory obligations. 

Jane Moriarty, restructuring partner at KPMG and joint special administrator, said: “Our priority has been to analyse the company’s records so that we can agree the balances, which is an important first step in starting to return money to clients.  We have now issued around 18,000 statements to clients, and to date have agreed approximately two thirds of the client creditors’ balances.

“We have commenced our review into the reasons for the company’s failure and have, to date, taken possession of around 24 terabytes of data (this is equivalent to 10 billion A4 pages and is larger than The Library of Congress which has 20TB).  While we are able to indicate high level data around funds collected and funds owed, it will be some time before an exact position on the return can be given.  A broad guide at the moment suggests a return to client creditors of 30-35p in the £1.”

Key facts from the creditors’ report:

• Overall financials: the special administrators have identified approximately £30m in client claims and have found around £5m in segregated accounts and £11m in house accounts; 

• All Worldspreads’ retail clients are currently thought to hold segregated status and are therefore able to claim against the segregated pool.  As there will be a shortfall in money owed, the clients will then have an unsecured claim against the estate;

• The special administrators are working closely with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to establish eligibility for compensation and confirm client statements so the FSCS can finalise its claims process and pay compensation to eligible customers under its rules. The FSCS will only use agreed balances to determine compensation amounts;

• All, but approximately 90 Worldspreads’ clients, had accounts worth less than £50,000;

• Once the FSCS has agreed to compensate a client, they will then take on that client’s claim against the estate;

• While the Special Administration Regime stipulates that individual client addresses should be redacted from the creditors’ report, the special administrators were granted an order by the court to redact all client details (including names) because the company’s records did not distinguish between corporate and individual clients and the administrative burden of distinguishing the two from thousands of records would have proved disproportionately expensive;

• Non-client, creditor details are available in the report (as set out in the legislation);

• In accordance with their statutory obligations, the special administrators are also investigating the conduct of the directors in the run up to the collapse of Worldspreads.  The report on this investigation is confidential and will be filed with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills;

• Special administrators’ fees to date are approximately £900,000;

• The next update on the special administrators’ progress will be made at the creditors’ meeting on 23rd May 2012.

Special Administrators’ proposals and initial meeting of creditors and clients 

A meeting of creditors and clients (pursuant to paragraph 51 of Schedule B1 of the Insolvency Act 1986) of WorldSpreads Limited will be held at the Methodist Central Hall, Storey's Gate, London, SW1H 9NH, United Kingdom on 23 May 2012 at 11:00am, to consider the Joint Special Administrators’ Proposals and to consider establishing a creditors’ committee comprising representatives of creditors and clients.

• The notice of the meeting can be found here

In view of the large number of creditors and clients, in accordance with Rule 297 of The Investment Bank Special Administration (England and Wales) Rules 2011, certain statutory documents are being made available electronically. This includes the Special Administrators’ proposals.

• The link to the Special Administrators’ proposals can be found here

If you are unable to download the PDF file, you may need to update your Adobe software to the latest version. Please go to the Adobe website http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/.

Hard copies of the Special Administrators’ proposals are available on request and free of charge. If you wish to receive hard copies of the proposals, please:

• telephone +44 (0)20 3284 8829; or
• email worldspreads-enquiries@kpmg.co.uk; or
• write to KPMG LLP, 8 Salisbury Square, London EC4Y 8BB, United Kingdom

Creditors’ and clients’ respective claim and proxy forms can be found here:

• Client asset statement form
• Client proxy form
• Client statement form
• Creditor proxy form
• Creditor's statement of claim

Please refer to appendix 6 of the Joint Special Administrators’ Proposals, being further information regarding the initial meeting of clients and creditors and the voting process, for assistance regarding completion of the relevant claim and proxy form.

Any client who has already responded to the statement emailed to the by the Special Administrators does not need to resubmit their claim for voting purposes.  


Meeting of clients and creditors on 23 May 2012

It is likely that the meeting of clients and creditors on 23 May 2012 will be well attended and we recommend that attendees arrive at the venue in plenty of time to complete the registration process and take their seats. Registration will commence at 9.30am. Due to the restrictions at the Methodist Central Hall, each creditor and client should limit the number of attendees at the meeting to a maximum of three people.

Details of how to get to the Methodist Central Hall and links to additional information on the venue, including information for disabled visitors, can be found here:

• Location of venue
• How to get to the venue
• Accessibility information

The meeting format will consist of the Special Administrators presenting their proposals and updating clients and creditors on progress in the special administration. There will then be an opportunity for clients and creditors to ask questions in respect of the proposals and the conduct of the special administration. Clients and creditors who have not already voted will then be asked to vote on the Special Administrators’ proposals and the establishment of a creditors committee (likely to comprise three representatives appointed by the "clients", one representatives appointed by the "creditors" and one representative of the FSCS).

The Special Administrators will endeavour to be in a position to announce the outcome of the votes at the end of the meeting although, depending on the number of attendees, it may be necessary to announce the result after the meeting. The result of the votes will be made available on this website.

You are reminded that if you would like to vote at the meeting, whether in person or by proxy, you must provide details of your claim to the Special Administrators by 12 noon on 22 May 2012. Please note that the term "client" refers to a claimant who thinks he/she has an interest in the segregated client money pool under the FSA's client money regulations (CASS 7) or a claimant with a proprietary interest in a client asset or assets. A "creditor" may well have been a client of the firm in the ordinary sense of the word, but if he does not have a client money or client asset claim under the relevant FSA CASS rules, then he is regarded as a "creditor" for these purposes, with a claim against the unsecured estate. Accordingly, you may have claims against the Company as both a creditor or a client. If this is the case and you wish to vote at the meeting, you must fill in both forms. We will be completing a verification process as and when claims forms are received in order to ensure that clients have completed the correct form(s).

The latest update on the Worldspreads Saga

Worldspreads had moved 80 per cent of its clients’ funds out of segregated accounts at the time of defunct spread betting operator’s failure, and may have routinely misused client money for as long as five years, according to its chairman.

Lindsay McNeile, chairman of Worldspreads since 2007, said in a witness statement last month that he became aware on March 16 that “the client money reconciliations had been ‘deliberately falsified’”. This followed the resignation earlier that week of Conor Foley, chief executive, and Niall O’Kelly, financial director, neither of whom has been accused of any wrongdoing.

“We were told that this had been going on for at least 12 months,” Mr McNeile said in his statement, submitted to the High Court to support Worldspreads’ application for administration on March 18. “The indication … was that there may have been inappropriate treatment of client monies for as long as five years.”

Mr McNeile’s admission means that the practices may have been ongoing at the time of Worldspreads’ flotation on Aim in 2007, underwritten by the company’s corporate broker, Collins Stewart. The revelation of the extent and longevity of the alleged fraud will add to the pressure on Ernst & Young, Worldspreads’ auditor, over its apparent failure to detect the irregularities.

Worldspreads was forced to announce its insolvency last month after it became clear that the amount of money owed to clients far exceeded the cash available to the company. This was caused by the group’s long-running failure to keep client monies in protected bank accounts as required by law, instead using much of the cash for its own purposes.

Clients believed that they were making their margin payments directly into a segregated account that would not be accessed by the company. But Mr McNeile’s testimony reveals that the company was misusing the vast majority of its customers’ funds at the time of its insolvency. When the insolvency was announced, it was revealed that Worldspreads had total cash balances of £16.6m, and owed clients a total of £29.7m.

“It appears that … client monies have indeed been commingled with the company’s funds, leaving a shortfall in the client accounts,” Mr McNeile said. The amount in segregated client accounts was only £5.8m, he said – meaning that £24.1m of the funds held on clients’ behalf was being used by Worldspreads for its own purposes.

Regulations state that spread betting companies must segregate funds held on behalf of clients unless a client specifically opts out of this arrangement. Few if any of Worldspreads’ clients made use of this exemption, according to people close to the situation.

Clients are expecting to receive about 50p of every pound owed to them by Worldspreads, and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme will cover the first £50,000 of any amount still outstanding.

This means that a number of clients owed more than £100,000 could be left facing substantial losses. The Worldspreads Action Group, representing 23 of these clients, is considering legal action against E&Y and Worldspreads’ directors, said Richard Jennings, the group’s chairman.

Several clients allege that much of the missing money was lost through an illegal scheme to support the company’s share price. The people say that managers of the company encouraged wealthy clients to take leveraged long positions in Worldspreads stock, promising to indemnify them against any losses.

The company then bought the corresponding shares in the market, allegedly using other client funds to make up the difference between the wealthy clients’ bets and the cost of the shares. Worldspreads did not force the clients to make good on their losses when the share price fell – but KPMG, the special administrator, may pursue these clients for the outstanding amounts.

“It’s beginning to look as though this company was never what it was purporting to be,” said Tony Wollenberg, a founder of City Index and leading spread betting and derivatives lawyer, who is one of the clients owed money by Worldspreads.

KPMG WHAT ARE THEY DOING ?

Dear all,

I myself have been on various calls to KPMG and have heard nothing which has given me any more details on what is going on. My understanding is that the creditors meeting is to be held next week and have heard this from someone that is supposed to be on the panel.
When are we going to get our compensation?
We should know something at the latest by the 16th of May as this is when the 8 weeks are up for KPMG.This is accordance to the FSA GUIDELINES
I have also called FSCS to find out their views on the current situation and they have told me they have not received anything from the administrators and it can take up to a maximum of six months to receive our funds. Please don’t get disheartened by this as I am sure we should see some compensation in June at some point.

This is what prompted to for me to call the FSCS
I had a distressing call from one of the clients that has lost money and he is literally in a very bad situation where he requested a full withdrawal 3 weeks prior to the event as he needed the full funds due to financial issues. He had called the FSCS and they told him that this could take six months. I can understand that many of you are in similar situations please be patient .Will try and post more regularly with whatever information I can get which is factual.
For now the date to bear in mind is the 16^th of May.
Kind regards
Rav

Market Spreads are back online and pass the Full Audit without any issues at all

We have just received written authorisation from the Central Bank that we are now permitted to action client withdrawal requests. All such requests are now being processed. We really appreciate your patience in this regard.
The Grant Thornton report, received by the Bank yesterday evening, affirmed that:
"There are sufficient assets in client bank and custodian accounts to meet all client obligations"
"We are also satisfied that amounts due to clients are held in segregated client bank accounts".

Today at 2.30pm, we meet the Bank and will ask them what we need to do to clear their issues and get your service back in operation for you soonest. We’ll update you as soon as we can.

All staff at MarketSpreads are hugely heartened by the support that many many clients are expressing to us. The bank has suspended us for issues that stem from prior to December 2009 when under different ownership and management.
PS: All clients & demo account holders can login to the platform to see live prices and charts.

Statement from John Mcglade Market Spreads

Dear all ,

Market spreads Clients,

John Mclgade has kindly responded to my email with regards to the

suspension of Marketspreads.

Rav, see attached which is pretty fair coverage.
 
Client funds are 100% safe, intact and ready for disbursement.
 
We are clean and what the Bank has done is unfair and unjustified. 

We will fight to reopen soon and rebuild our business.  Call me.  Best,
 
John McGlade
 
Sales and Marketing Director & Joint acting CEO

Central Bank suspended Market Spreads

Late on Easter Thursday the Central Bank suspended us.
Client funds are 100% intact and MarketSpreads is solvent and profitable. We are working with the Bank on the two issues raised which stem from prior to December 21st 2009 when the firm was owned and managed by others. Funds are releasable to clients as soon as the Bank says so. If you want to withdraw any or all of your funds andy.tran@marketspreads.ie will take care of you. We want to be back in business soonest and will keep you updated. Call us on Dublin (003531) 8636666 if you have any questions. Either of us is also available to you at any time. We wish to thank clients for the magnificent support you have shown. Your trust in us is hugely appreciated. "

WorldSpreads directors accused of bet scandal

Directors at collapsed spread-betting group WorldSpreads misled clients into placing bets on the company’s fortunes in order to inflate its share price, it has been claimed. 

Executives led customers to believe WorldSpreads’ share price would rise and encouraged them to enter into so-called “long bets” on the shares through the company, according to sources. This was despite spread-betting firms being prohibited from giving financial advice.

Sources close to the company, which filed for bankruptcy last month, said WorldSpreads did not force clients to “make good” the losses on these bets when the shares failed to rise.

“This all adds up to the directors looking to support the shares in WorldSpreads through the use of clients — this is clear and simple ‘market abuse’,” one well placed source added.

WorldSpreads was placed in administration on March 19 after a £13m “black hole” was found in its accounts, putting about 15,000 clients, mostly retail customers, at risk of losing almost half their money. At the time, administrator KPMG said clients were owed £29.7m, which should have been held in a segregated customer account, but that the group’s total cash came to just £16.6m.

The alleged market abuse is believed to have been taking place for more than a year before WorldSpreads’ collapse. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is understood to be reviewing the issue as part of a wider investigation after complaints from sources close to the company.

Clients have set up an action group following the collapse. The WorldSpreads Action Group, set up for clients with more than £100,000 held at the group, is exploring legal action against the directors, their insurers and the auditors, Ernst & Young. The action group is being advised by Raworths, the legal firm.
WorldSpreads’ clients will be eligible for £50,000 compensation under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Beyond that, they will be treated as preferential creditors ahead of WorldSpreads’ general estate. As a result, shareholders and lenders are likely to bear the bulk of the final losses.
The collapse has led to comparisons with the insolvency of the far-larger US brokerage, MF Global, which allegedly broke US laws by mingling client money with its own. KPMG is also administrator to MF Global’s UK arm, which was audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
More than 80pc of staff working at WorldSpreads have been made redundant and told they will not receive salary payments owed to them. The group of 52 City workers were told that they will need to apply to the Government’s Redundancy Payments Office for compensation, which can take several weeks to pay out.
KPMG said the business itself will not be sold, although it may dispose of some of its software and data centre assets.
The FSA is set to review how companies handle client money following the collapses of Lehman Brothers, MF Global and WorldSpreads. The City watchdog said it would look at the “inadequate records, ineffective segregation of client assets and low level of awareness of requirements in this area” as part of its current business plan. It is also examining options to prohibit former bosses of failed banks from taking other City jobs.
The collapses of Lehman Brothers and MF Global have led to questions about which clients should have their funds classed as segregated. WorldSpreads’ failure has been referred to City of London Police.
The sudden collapse and allegations of fraud have also raised questions about the sudden departures of chief executive Conor Foley, WorldSpreads’ founder and largest shareholder, and its finance director of eight years, Niall O’Kelly, ahead of the administration.
When the spread-betting company collapsed, a spokesman for Mr Foley released a statement saying: “[He] wishes to make it clear that the first he learned of these issues was on Friday morning [before the collapse on Monday], at the same time as the rest of the board. His decision to step down earlier... was completely unrelated to these issues.”
Mr O’Kelly had originally tendered his resignation in February after a profits warning. At the time, the company said it “maintains a strong balance sheet with net cash of €7m [£5.8m]”.
[src telegraph]

MarketSpreads Shut Down

Leading Irish spread-betting firm MarketSpreads has been instructed by the Central Bank to suspend trading immediately.
The Central Bank yesterday suspended the firm's licence to trade, citing  "capital adequacy and audit opinion issues".
In an email to account holders, the company said it received an instruction from the bank at 4pm yesterday to suspend client trading. On foot of this, management took the decision to close all open positions, it added.
MarketSpreads was originally the Irish arm of international spread-betting operation WorldSpreads which is now under special administration in the UK following a dramatic collapse last month.
In its email, MarketSpreads insisted it remained “profitable and solvent”, and that all client funds were "properly segregated".
“We are in the process of closing down all client positions and will do so as fairly and efficiently as we possibly can,” it said.
The company unsuccessfully sought a High Court injunction yesterday against the Central Bank’s move to suspend it.
“We went to the High Court to at the very least achieve a stay on this completely unexpected bank instruction but the judge could not see anything unlawful with the bank’s actions and we are now forced to suspend client trading and close all open positions,” it said.
MarketSpreads said despite previously affirming that its client funds were "properly managed", the Central Bank had instructed it not to release any funds to clients until further notice.

The bank is due to receive an independent report on the company’s trading position from accountants Grant Thornton on Tuesday.
MarketSpreads bought the business from WorldSpreads in 2009 and renamed it, and have been a separate entity since then.
WorldSpreads, which is headquartered in Dublin, went into administration last month after it was found to have shortfall of €15.6 million of client money.
Its founder, Conor Foley, resigned as chief executive before the collapse.

Technology Platform Remains Unsold

Forex industry news website, leaprate.com, is reporting that that, contrary to earlier reports, the Worldspreads technology platform has not been sold to ETX or any other party.

Additionally, the foreign currency site clarifies that the 15,000 Worldspreads client list with 5,000 active traders would usually be worth between $500,000 and $2m and therefore creditors facing a shortfall will want to see it sold. KPMG’s current reported stance is that there are no plans to sell it.   This may change when a creditors committee is formed and tries to ensure returns are maximised.

In further related news it was announced recently that Jim Hamilton of BDO's Dublin, Ireland office was discharged as receiver and manager of WorldSpreads.  Some clients were confused and somewhat perturbed by this resignation. The explanation is simple and no cause for undue alarm; because there are no imminent asset sales then Mr. Hamilton’s role is redundant.  This action is in line with KPMG's earlier prompt measures in which Worldspreads staff were made redundant.

Meanwhile, clients await some key information; a date for the return of  sums up to £50,000 from the FSCS, information from KPMG on the amount of remaining funds available for distribution and some confirmation that media reported police investigations are progressing.  

Regarding issues with final statements

If you do not agree with the account balance on the final statement that was first sent to you on 30 March 2012 please fill in the form below. Please complete one form for each account number you hold. Please use your account number as the filename and send it to worldspreads-enquiries@kpmg.co.uk together with any evidence supporting your claim.

This is the link for the form:
http://www.kpmg.com/UK/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/PDF/Advisory/worldspreads-final-statement-query-form.pdf

Kind Regards

Rav

Further update for customers of Worldspreads Ltd

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is currently working with the Joint Special Administrators to determine the best process for ensuring eligible customers of Worldspreads Ltd receive compensation quickly.

FSCS is aware that the Joint Special Administrators will be making statements available to clients for them to agree their balances. FSCS will only use agreed balances to determine compensation amounts, and will work with the Joint Special Administrators to obtain this information as quickly as possible.

We will provide a further update shortly to outline the process we will use. There is no need to contact FSCS at this time, as we will contact you separately regarding your claim.

Worldspreads Administrators Issue Final Client Statements

The special administrators of Worldspreads Limited have issued all clients with their final statements.

Clients will have the opportunity to review the details of their account and confirm whether they are correct or whether they disagree with the statement. There are approximately 15,000 clients.

Jane Moriarty, special administrator of Worldspreads and restructuring partner at KPMG, commented: “While the sudden collapse of Worldspreads has understandably caused a great deal of distress for the company’s clients, the issuing of all final client statements today is an important milestone in returning funds to clients.

“We will now be able to start agreeing the statements with clients. The next stage in the process will be the creditors’ meeting which will be held within the next 8 weeks, in line with our statutory responsibilities.”

All statements are being sent to registered client email addresses. The special administrators will send out the paper copies of statements where the registered email address is no longer in use.

If UK clients have not received their final statement within 7 days, or 21 days for overseas clients, the special administrators have requested that they send their account details and current contact details, including email address, to WorldSpreads-enquiries@kpmg.co.uk.
SRC(ITAUDIT)

FSCS-claim process for WorldSpreads Limited

Please note that if you have registered with Worldspreads-nilclaim@kpmg.co.uk after 15.00 GMT on 29 March 2012, you may still have received an email with your statement attached.� Please be advised that you have now been removed from the client list and will receive no further correspondence.� You are not required to write again to register that you do not have a claim.



Details about the FSCS process are on their website www.fscs.org.uk and will shortly include a further update relating to the claim process for WorldSpreads Limited. However, in order for the FSCS to begin their process your claim must be agreed with the Joint Special Administrators.Therefore you must confirm to the Joint Special Administrators as quickly as possible whether you agree or disagree with your statement balance.FSCS will only accept agreed balances from the Joint Special Administrators for use in determining client claims.



There is no need to contact FSCS at this time as it will contact you separately regarding your claim.

The special administrators of Worldspreads Limited have issued all 15,000 clients with their final statements.

Dear Sir/Madam

WorldSpreads Limited (in special administration) (the Company)

As you will be aware from previous correspondence, Samantha Bewick and Jane Moriarty were appointed by the Court as Joint Special Administrators to the Company (the Joint Special Administrators) on 18 March 2012.

Please find attached your TWO closing statements. All open positions have been closed out immediately following the appointment of the Joint Special Administrators.

Once you have had an opportunity to review your closing statement:

· If you agree with your closing balance on the statement dated 30 MARCH 2012, please reply to this email with I agree and providing your full name and address as listed on your closing statement, together with updated contact details if appropriate.


· If you do not agree with the closing balance on the statement dated 30 MARCH 2012, a form will be available on www.kpmg.co.uk/worldspreads after midday on Monday 2 April 2012 which you are requested to fill in and submit together with the evidence you have to support your position.


 The Joint Special Administrators require this evidence to be sent to them either at WorldSpreads-enquiries@kpmg.co.uk or the following address:

WorldSpreads Limited
c/o KPMG LLP
8 Salisbury Square
London
EC4Y 8BB

The White Label Companies chasing up KPMG

Dear Customer
We just wanted to update you on our separate discussions with the administrator (KPMG) and the FSCS.
As previously advised, we have formally contacted both the administrator and the FSCS, asking if we can work with them to speed up the process of repaying client monies. Whilst we are awaiting a further update, which we hope will be with us very soon, the initial replies that we have received suggest that they will try and accommodate our proposal to allow the more timely return of client money. As soon as they are in a position to single out the xxxxx clients and the exact amount of money that they are due we hope to be able to securely remit these monies but at this time the administrator and the FSCS are still collating this information.
In cases where you have in excess of the FSCS limit of £50,000 due to you we will continue to have further discussions with you around the management of these instances.
Please therefore look out for further correspondence in the near future.
If you have any specific questions please get in touch with me on this email address.
Best Regards
xxxx

At least they are trying their level best.

Calling CFA Solicitors

One of the unfortunate consequences of having supposedly safe and secure segregated assets taken from clients is that many are too impoverished to take legal action.

There is still the prospect that if the case is clear cut against any of the likely legal targets then KPMG will take action on behalf of out of pocket clients.   There are two issues here; firstly, while I confess to only taking a superficial look,  I haven't seen any precedent of Administrators taking legal action in other cases.

It appears the usual process is to assign the claim to creditors / clients.  Secondly, if the Administrator takes action, then this will deplete further our remaining funds available for distribution and delay payout through the almost inevitably protracted legal process.

My own preference is for the Administrator to provide a clear and detailed report on what has happened and make it available for claimant representatives to pursue a claim.  It appears archaic and unjust that effected parties have no automatic right to see such information.

All clients that are left in a position needing to recover funds need to see this report regardless of whether, at this stage, they have the resources to employ solicitors to lobby on their behalf.  There cannot be two tiers of information flow to impacted clients.

The hope is that an early report in combination with assignation of the claim to clients could result in an early 50% distribution.  That's based on the £16.7m remaining cash announced by Worldspreads and further asset sales with KPMG restricting their fees to around £2m.  Of course we await further information on this from KPMG and selling hedged positions could move the figure upwards or downwards.

The alternative if KPMG pursue the claim is a potentially lengthy wait for any funds above 50k to be released.  That might be the preference of many.  I can see the validity of that point if the case is particularly clear cut and likely to lead to reasonably prompt settlement.  In fact, I would favour such a route myself.  If, however, the consensus is that a drawn out legal pursuit is on the cards my preference is for assignation of the claim and a reasonably substantive percentage early pay-out.

Clients with over  90k to 100k can then look to externally funded legal options.

The first port of call is to see if a CFA (Conditional Fee Arrangement) is available.  One of the purposes of this piece is to call on any solicitors with an inclination to take this on with a CFA charging structure to get in touch with Rav, the blog owner.

The second route is to look at legal funding groups.  If the prospects of success are higher than 70% (usually as assessed by a barrister) then there are groups including hedge funds who will fund a high value case in exchange for a whopping 50% of any return.

I hope clients don't have to go down the second route and solicitors I have spoken to who are not inclined to take on CFA cases suggest that there may be some firms who might pursue the claim on a CFA basis. 

There is also the scope of expanding the number of clients who pursue legal action to anyone who has lost funds from being out of the market.  Worldspreads have the legal right to close our positions under the T & C, however, they also had an obligation to return resulting balances.  Accordingly, there may be a case for those that can show that they are long-term position holders who, in the absence of returned balances, have lost simply because they are unable to replace their same positions and mitigate.

If any solicitors are inclined to look at taking this potential case on with a CFA  are reading this blog then please do get in touch.  Email Rav :-  nshah10@hotmail.com  

Best wishes and good luck to all,

Nick

Worldspreadsheist update

Dear all,

I am sorry for the lack of posting but being a full time currency trader, I still have to somehow keep on trading for a living. Today for me has been a day of setting up my accounts and funding them in the most conservative way I can.

I have however studied the Accounts and would like to discuss the topics from tomorrow. Please could you email me any topics you would like to discuss so I can review them and post them ASAP.As this blog belongs to all of us.
Where do we go from here, two weeks out of the 10 weeks complete and we are still awaiting any kind of communication from Kpmg regarding claim forms..June seems like a long way away.

For those day traders who trade for a living I understand how hard it is, as for us every day is a step forward for making our wage for the end of the month.

Current curiosities:
A) We need to find out why the FSA did not notice the imbalance in the accounts when the tally is suppose to be sent to the FSA everyday by spread betting firms.
I will try and publish the end to end process that SB firms are supposed to carry out.
B) How did Lindsay Mckneile\Dominic Bacon find out that there was a missing balances of 13 million in one day? Yet FSA/ Ernst & Young or the Directors not even notice anything different.

I am also trying to answer the emails as quickly as I can please bear with me.

Kind regards
Thanks for all your support

Rav

WorldSpreads Group plc- Receiver Resignation

WorldSpreads Group plc

("WorldSpreads (Irish: A0MXL9.IR - news) " or the "Company")

Receiver Resignation

WorldSpreads announces that Mr Jim Hamilton of BDO, Beaux Lane House, Mercer Street Lower, Dublin 2 (the "Receiver"), who was appointed as receiver and manager to the assets and undertaking of the Company on 23 March 2012, was on 28 March 2012, discharged from his appointment as receiver and manager in respect of the assets and undertaking of the Company.

WorldSpreads Group plc

Lindsay McNeile, Executive Chairman

Dominic Bacon, General Counsel

+44 (0)20 7398 5100

Audited Accounts for Worldspreads

Open publication - Free publishing - More accounts

A SPECIAL READ IN THE ERNST & YOUNG AUDIT REPORT ABOUT THEIR FINDINGS....
Will try and get this typed up for further discussion.And I would like to now
start getting questions ready for the worldspreadsheist audit for worldspreads.

Regars Rav

Integrity of the UK in the eyes of the financial world at stake !!!

The integrity of the markets is at stake as well as the integrity of the UK in the eyes of the financial world.

Segregated client accounts of Worldspreads are missing upwards of 15 million pounds. This money just does not disappear or then according to news reports show up at Ernst and Young and then to disappear once again. RBS was a custodial bank for Worldspreads. 

Were funds sequestered from Worldspreads Clients by Royal Bank of Scotland to make up in short falls?  Does the UK Financial system allow stealing of segregated funds at one institution by another?

These segregated accounts are no different than personal or corporate bank accounts or even stock market accounts. These accounts were (possibly) violated and a large amount of assets are missing.

What is worse is the violation of the FSA Regulation which states that in the event of a  bankruptcy client funds are to be handled separately from the firm assets and given priority. It is questionable what transpired, however 15000 customer accounts have been frozen and fifteen million pounds are unaccounted for. The analogy is very simple. It is as if a bank makes bad loans and then pillages their customer’s accounts to remedy the situation or if a Stock brokerage company makes bad investments and then withdraws monies from their client’s accounts. If this is allowed to continue there will be NO Trust in the markets. Nothing will be safe!