The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has announced it is investigating wealth management firm Pello Capital.
Pello offered a range of services to its clients, including stockbroking, online share dealing, foreign exchange trading, corporate broking, and pensions. It was authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) from February 2007 until 15 November 2022.
On 15 November 2022, the FCA stopped the firm from conducting regulated activities and restricting it from disposing of assets.
A month later, Pello was placed in creditors voluntary liquidation by its directors on 14 December 2022 due to action taken by the FCA, the FSCS said.
Adam Stephens and Mark Ford of Evelyn Partners were appointed special administrators of Pello in December 2022.
The duo said, at the time, that the company “is no longer in a position to respond to client queries”. According to the special administrators, the clients’ investments remain under the management of the company’s custodians, being either Jarvis Investment Management or James Brearley & Sons Limited.
Accepting claims
On 9 May 2023, the FSCS said it is “now accepting claims against Pello Capital”.
The UK lifeboat scheme said it is “currently working closely with the administrators” as it investigates whether customers who have submitted claims are eligible for compensation.
“Until we have finished our investigation, we cannot say whether we will be able to pay compensation to any customers who submit claims to FSCS against Pello Capital Ltd,” the FSCS added.
“We will provide updated information via our webpage as our investigation progresses, and we will notify all customers that have submitted claims when an update has been posted.”
This comes a few weeks after the FSCS said it was investigating UK-based self-invested personal pension (Sipp) operator Gaudi Regulated Services Limited and Cheshire-based IFA firm Arrow Financial Services UK Ltd.
This story originated on our sister publication, International Adviser.
