Thoughts on Finance, Current Affairs and General Consumer Ripoffs - Damn Lies and Statistics

Has Boris Johnson's outsmarted by MPs and been too clever for his own good? By preventing the government from rushing headlong into a no deal situation MPs have narrowed down Boris Johnson's options but he has now boxed himself in by proroguing parliament which limits the time available to pass legislation that could enable a General Election. The government's attempt to call a General Election via the Fixed Term Parliament Act has failed so other options would be needed but by suspending parliament next week there is unlikely to be sufficient time to do so beforehand meaning an election on 15th October could now be unlikely. Boris Skewered By His Strategy Backfiring? It's an unusual situation with the government wanting to call an election but as the government has no majority with the date entirely now in the control of the opposition who could wait until the most opportune time. Sacking so many Conservative MPs having already lost your majority, proroguin...

With the announcement this week that Boris Johnson was proroguing parliament with a new Queen's Speech on 14th October there was one element that seems to have been missed from the discussion about the implications. Theresa May's government brought the Withdrawal Agreement to Parliament where it was rejected 3 times and due to a ruling by the Speaker could not be brought back again for a further vote in that session. I've not seen any mention on the major news channels that the prorogation of Parliament means that a new session begins and with it the opportunity to bring back the Withdrawal agreement for a final time. Despite his current claims of dissatisfaction over the agreement Boris Johnson has previously voted for it so can't be that dead set against it. I suspect that one strategy he may be looking to follow could be to give MPs a final decision between the existing Withdrawal Agreement and leaving with No Deal with the deadline days away piling on the p...

Further Update - Weds 14th August - some investors are still saying that they have not yet received their interest due from Blackmore and have had no reply from the company. UPDATE - as of Weds 7th August the interest payment has now been made by Blackmore Bond. Another company promoted by Surge Financial, the agent behind sales of London Capital and Finance was Blackmore Bond. According to reports from investors on the Trust Pilot and BondReview sites Blackmore Bond have been late paying interest due on 31st July. If Blackmore are unable to make interest payments it doesn't bode well for capital repayments due in 2020 Blackmore Bond in Trouble? Blackmore Bond in Trouble? Late Interest payments Blackmore were offering similarly high rates of interest as LCF but claimed they were making returns of over 50% to pay back investors as well as their 25% commission fees to Surge Financial. Time will tell if they are going the same way as LCF and heading for administrati...

Bond Review has reported that Park First has filed for administration  and that Smith & Williamson have again been appointed as with LCF. The news suggests that the investors may have between £120 and £190 million invested with the company. Park First offered airport parking spaces for sale with "guaranteed" returns of 8% which investors are now finding to be nothing of the sort. This follows their previous venture Store First which made similar claims and left many investors seriously out of pocket. Park First administration - investors to lose again? As well as London Capital & Finance which went bust with £237 million of investors money outstanding there is also £30+ million from Harewood Associates and various other failed investment schemes that have gone into administration this year with a total in excess of £500 million. Along with Blackmore Bonds that has delayed filing accounts and stopped taking new investments which may raise questions from invest...

London Capital & Finance was based in Tunbridge Wells and grew massively from 2015 with over 11,600 investors placing their money at rates up to 8% How does a small unknown company based in a sleepy Kent town grow from nothing to take £237 million from savers in 3 years? I think it essentially boils down to two words – name and service. The people behind London Capital & Finance (LCF) may have been running a Ponzi scam but they appear to have thought very carefully about how they planned it and made sure that they appealed to their target audience. In my view the LCF story was by no means accidental, it had a serious amount of planning to make sure that they obtained the maximum money for as long as possible. Once things have reached the courts I suspect it would make a gripping TV drama with the personalities involved. The Slick Sales Operation That Took £237 million from Savers LCF were very clever to choose a name that associated them with the City of Londo...

In news that will be welcomed by London Capital & Finance investors the FSCS have announced that claims by some investors may be accepted as they have reason to believe that advice may have been given. They have provided a questionnaire to gather more information about how many investors this may affect. https://www.fscs.org.uk/failed-firms/lcf/ This could mean that some LCF investors get their money back up to £85k which still means that others with investments above that could lose out as well as others that didn't receive advice. However the LCF website did show that FSCS cover did not apply and that the investment involved risk of losing their money which some investors seem to have missed. The advice element may refer to sales allegedly made by John Russell Murphy who a number of LCF investors have claimed met them to conclude sales of LCF bonds.

There have been reports that some investors in London Capital and Finance are unhappy with the use of the term "mini-bond" to describe what they purchased from LCF. However the reports just highlight further the confusion from many investors over what they actually bought. Many people seem to have little understanding of the structure of an ISA and that it is only a tax wrapper rather than a product in its own right. It's partly understandable as most people have no knowledge of ISAs other than cash ISAs. The London Capital and Finance website also didn't help matters by listing ISAs and bonds separately - in reality they are invested in exactly the same product but the ISA just has a tax wrapper around it meaning no tax is due on any income from it. LCF Mini Bonds or ISA? Investor Confusion over FCA Terminology The screenshot above shows the LCF website that doesn't make clear that the ISA and bond contain exactly the same mini bonds and that the only ...