Curtis used his pension cash to back firm

21 July 2011 12:00 pm | By Tom Selby

Curtis Banks director Rupert Curtis ploughed £150,000 of his own pension into the firm to shore up its capital position last year as total losses reached £350,000.

Accounts filed in Companies House reveal Curtis used his personal pension fund to buy preference shares in the Sipp and SSAS firm on two occasions during 2010. In January, he inves-ted £100,000 of his retirement pot in Curtis Banks and a further £50,000 in December.

The accounts state: “At the end of the period, a personal pension fund of Rupert Curtis was owed £150,000 in relation to redeemable preference shares issued by the company to that pension fund.”

Curtis says: “We moved into profit last November and since then every month we have been in profit, so the project is going well. But there was always going to be heavy looking losses early on. All the capital we put in is part of the initial trading pro-cess, including the funds I invested from my pension. We thought it was important to capitalise the company ourselves rather than going to a bank, so we are not at the whim of a bank manager.”

Curtis Banks’ annual report shows total losses increased from £47,175 in 2009 to £350,218 in 2010. The figures do not include the purchase of Montpelier Pension Administration Services in May.

The company says it now administers nearly 3,000 pension schemes and has “more than sufficient critical mass to forecast ongoing profitability”.

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