The Central Bank has appointed Des Ritchie of the Central Bank as Administrator to assess and certify claims for compensation made by clients of Asset Management Trust Limited.

The Central Bank has determined that it appears that the firm is unable for the time being, for reasons which are directly related to its financial circumstances, to meet its obligations arising from claims by clients and to have no reasonably foreseeable opportunity of being able to do so.

The Investor Compensation Company will shortly write to the firm’s clients and place notices in national newspapers inviting applications for compensation in circumstances where AMT failed to return money or investment instruments which clients entrusted to AMT.  Clients have until 27 July 2016 to make a claim for compensation.

Losses caused by a fall in the value of investments because of market or other economic events are not compensatable by the ICCL. Compensation is limited to 90% of an eligible investor’s net loss as certified by the Administrator or €20,000 whichever is the lower for each eligible investor.

The CBI said that it is difficult to estimate the period of time that may elapse before the Administrator has sufficient evidence to certify a claim. However, if a claim is certified, the ICCL aims to make payments within two weeks of certification.

In Association with

The directors of Asset Management Trust Ltd are Robert Brickell and Gerard McCoy. The company’s latest filed accounts relate to the year to January 2012, when year-end net worth was €25,000. Former rugby international Fergus Slattery had a 10% shareholding in the firm, according to the latest filed annual return. Lafferty & Co resigned as auditors to the company in December 2014.

The company was on the receiving end of three judgments from the Collector General totalling €44,000 through 2015.

Authorised Advisor

AMT was authorised as an authorised advisor under the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995.  The firm was not authorised to hold client assets.

The Central Bank said it received information which gave rise to concerns on its part regarding the firm’s compliance with specific regulatory requirements in March 2014. The Central Bank conducted inspections of AMT's books and records which led to a series of directions being imposed on the company in the interests of protecting clients.

The Central Bank said it also engaged with all product producers that had appointed AMT as their agent/intermediary requesting them to contact their clients directly to confirm current holdings and values.

According to a CBI statement: "The Central Bank continued to engage with AMT regarding the outstanding regulatory issues and in March 2015 AMT voluntarily revoked its authorisation and cancelled its registration with the Central Bank. AMT signed a referral agreement with another regulated entity and AMT provided their clients with relevant contact details.

"In the course of its investigations, the Central Bank was alerted by clients of AMT to circumstances whereby the firm may have exceeded its contractual authority. Such circumstances may give rise to a compensatable loss under the Investor Compensation Scheme. Due to some of the risks highlighted by this case, the Central Bank commenced a themed inspection in 2015 on other firms in this sector, and work is on-going throughout 2016."