The formal wording is that Pritchard Stockbrokers, as from today (9 March), has entered the “special administration regime”. This follows WH Ireland taking charge of the firm’s assets, but not its money, at the end of February with the FSA having issued a formal supervisory notice on 10 February. At the same time, assets of both Pritchard and any investor assets and money held were also frozen.
Timothy Ball, Roderick Weston and Alistair Wood at Mazars have since been appointed joint special administrators.
The FSA had serious concerns about the way Pritchard has been running its business and handling investor money. It was also concerned the firm had failed to adequately protect the money that it holds on behalf of investors, and has allowed this money to be used to meet its own costs.
At a date to be confirmed – though it will be sooner rather than later – customers of Pritchard Stockbrokers will be able to deal through WH Ireland that is already writing to customers to confirm the exact details.
Whether clients will get all of their holdings back remains to be seen, with the administrators reviewing each client’s cash holdings positions to “return as much cash as possible” directly to each individual.
