Towry blames poor record on transfer delays
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Towry group chief executive Andrew Fisher has blamed the company’s poor complaint record on client asset transfer delays as the FSA reveals Towry upheld 97 per cent of complaints over six months.
The FSA published complaint figures last week based on firms that reported 500 complaints or more over the six- month period between July and December 2010.
The figures show that Towry got 2,067 complaints. The bulk of the complaints relate to the Towry’s takeover of Edward Jones, with 1,301 new complaints for Towry Edward Jones and 766 for Towry Investment Management.
Of the 1,554 complaints closed by Towry relating to Edward Jones, 97 per cent were upheld. Of the 667 closed complaints relating to Towry Investment Management, 93 per cent were upheld.
Group chief executive Andrew Fisher says the majority of complaints centre around delays to in-specie transfers.
Hundreds of former Edward Jones clients requested to transfer their investments away from Towry when it bought Edward Jones in October 2009, which triggered a backlog. In some cases, the delays lasted over several months.
Fisher says: “The complaints have been driven by people who have chosen to do in-specie transfers. Some 95 per cent of the entire complaint list is associated directly with transfers. The core business has almost no complaints at all.
“Fortunately, of course, all the clients remained in the market during the period, so the complaints were a consequence of inconvenience as opposed to loss of any kind.”
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