The UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) paid over £114 million to London Capital & Finance plc (LCF) bondholders. On 30 January 2019, LCF went into administration. On 9 January 2020, LCF announced it had failed.
A statement released in 2019 shed light on the activities of LCF:
"LCF is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (with FRN 722603). LCF was the issuer of mini-bonds which were used for the purposes of making loans to corporate borrowers to provide those borrowers with capital for further investment.
"The issuing of mini-bonds does not normally involve the carrying on of an FCA regulated activity. Therefore, LCF did not need to be authorized by the FCA to issue the mini-bonds but did need to be authorized to issue the promotion of the mini-bonds.
"There are some 14,000 bondholders with LCF. We are working to ensure that they are all contacted directly and urgently so that they are aware of the situation.
"We have set up a dedicated call center and email system. We would ask the Bondholders to bear with us in these early days as there is much to do."
The FSCS Compensated over 12,000 Bonds
The FSCS commenced its investigation to determine if all actives were regulated. By 19 April 2021, 2,871 bondholders were paid £56.6 million.
After the payment was issued, the UK government announced a one-time compensation scheme. Compensation is to be provided to eligible bondholders that the FSCS was unable to compensate.
An update was issued today on the compensation.
The FSCS has compensated 12,330 bonds for over £114 million. 88 bonds are still due to be paid for as part of the compensation scheme. The FSCS has confirmed 37 cheques will be sent in the next several days.
The remaining 51, documents were requested from the bondholders that are yet to be provided. The last batch of cheques will be issued around Easter.
If you are expecting a cheque and have not received it by the end of April, please contact the FSCS at 0800 091 0030 or via its website.
It was noted that several cheques that were sent remained uncashed.
The FSCS will contact these bondholders via a phone call or email to affirm whether there are any issues.
