By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
THE UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned former SVS Securities CEO Demetrios Hadjigeorgiou from senior management roles and fined him £56,400.
Hadjigeorgiou served as director and CEO of SVS Securities, a discretionary fund manager, from May 2018 to August 2019.
The FCA found that he failed to properly manage SVS and protect customers’ interests. While he was CEO, the firm invested customers’ money, including pension savings, in high-risk products.
“Mr Hadjigeorgiou also failed to challenge a decision that reduced the value of customers’ bond investments by 10% when they decided to sell them,” the FCA said.
“This generated £359,800 for SVS at the expense of its customers.”
The regulator added: “Customers were not clearly told about this reduction and, as a result, some lost part of their pension savings.”
The FCA said Hadjigeorgiou breached Statement of Principle 6 by “failing to exercise due skill, care and diligence in managing the business of SVS”.
The regulator also said its findings showed that customers’ pension money had been exposed to high-risk investments while SVS prioritised its own income.
The FCA said Hadjigeorgiou settled the case and withdrew his referral to the Upper Tribunal. It then imposed the £56,400 fine and prohibition order.
Therese Chambers, the FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “Building up a pension for retirement is one of the most important investments you can make.”
“Mr Hadjigeorgiou put people’s savings at risk and his actions have left people worse off in retirement,” Chambers said.
She added: “Where senior leaders fail to put customer interests first, we will act.”
SVS entered special administration in August 2019. Officials dissolved it in August 2023. The FCA previously took action against three individuals from the firm over its treatment of pension funds.
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