Your money is held in segregated client bank (independent trust) accounts at regulated banks
Your money and assets (shares and turbo warrants, for example) are never merged with our own money or assets
We comply with strict regulatory requirements when handling client money
Your assets are held by a custodian in segregated (nominee) client asset accounts
Your money and assets are ring-fenced from creditors in the unlikely event of our liquidation
We don't use your money or assets for business activities, including for hedging trades with other counterparties (or as margin for our own hedging trades)
Unlike banks, investment firms like Suisse Brokers are required to separate client money and assets from their own resources. This means that we’re not allowed to use them in the course of our business activities, and that client money and assets are completely ring-fenced and protected in the unlikely event that Suisse Brokers became insolvent.
The Suisse Brokers have strict regulatory requirements, known as the client money and client assets rules (found in the Client Assets Sourcebook – CASS), which govern exactly what we can do and how we must do it.
The only clients whose money and assets aren’t treated like this are professional clients (such as other financial firms), or eligible counterparties who have signed a legal document explaining how their money and assets are held differently (this is known as ‘title transfer’).
Your money is held in segregated bank accounts under trustee arrangements. This ensures that the cash remains yours, rather than Suisse Brokers’s. It also means that it’s easily identifiable as client money, so Suisse Brokers and its creditors don’t have any charge, liens, or rights of set-off or retention over it.
We intentionally ensure that client money is split between a number of banks, and we’re not permitted to hold it all in one place.
We may place funds in notice or term deposit accounts with a notice period or term of up to 95 days. Placing client money in notice or term deposit accounts does not in itself affect your ability to deal with or withdraw funds from your account with us. However, in the unlikely event of our insolvency, such amounts may not be immediately available upon request.
Your shares or turbo warrants are held in a segregated client accounts under nominee arrangements with approved custodians. This means that they’re easily identifiable as client assets and, as with cash, Suisse Brokers and its creditors don’t have any charge, liens, or rights of set-off or retention over them. Your shares or turbo warrants may be pooled with those belonging to other clients, but never with shares or turbo warrants owned by Suisse Brokers.
In the unlikely event of this happening, all our clients would have their share of the segregated money or segregated assets returned, minus the administrators’ costs in handling and distributing these funds.
For Suisse Brokers Markets accounts: any shortfall of funds up to £85,000 may be compensated for under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is the compensation fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms. It’s designed by the UK government to act as a ‘safety net’, and usually covers private investors (retail clients) and small businesses if they’ve been clients of a financial services firm which becomes insolvent.
For Suisse Brokers Europe accounts: EdW compensates investors if Suisse Brokers Europe is in financial difficulties and no longer able to fulfil its obligations under securities transactions concluded with its clients. The German Financial Supervisory Authority determines when this event has occurred and publishes this determination in the Federal Gazette.
The amount of compensation awarded to each investor under securities transactions is 90% of the claims against the securities trading company (not more than €20,000).
For clients of Suisse Brokers Markets the losses would be shared by clients in proportion to the share of money held with the failed bank. Funds lost in this way may be compensated for under the FSCS up to a limit of £85,000 per person, per institution, subject to other balances held with the bank in question.
For clients of Suisse Brokers Europe the deposits from clients of Suisse Brokers Europe are covered under the bank deposit guarantee scheme up to the value of €100.000 or equivalent value in other currencies depending on the protection offered by the bank. For this, client money is held only by banks which are covered by the guarantee scheme.