Clients of AFX Markets must file their claims not later than June 1, 2020
There is currently a worldwide freezing order against the assets of AFX and attempts are being made to have that order lifted.
The Joint Special Administrators (JSAs) of AFX Markets Ltd today published their progress report for the period from August 27, 2019 to February 26, 2020.
The report includes a notice regarding a bar date, that is, a cut-off date for submitting claims. The Administrators consider that it is necessary, in order to expedite the return of client money, to set a bar date of 17.00 hours (GMT) on June 1, 2020 (the “Client Money Bar Date”) for the submission of claims (“Client Money Claims”).
The Client Money Bar Date only applies to client money and does not apply to other client assets. This notice relates only to Client Money Claims and does not relate to any other type of claim one may have against AFX.
If you fail to submit your Client Money Claim by the Client Money Bar Date, the Joint Special Administrators will not be able to guarantee that your Client Money Claim will be satisfied in whole or in part, or indeed at all in certain circumstances.
There is currently a worldwide freezing order against the assets of AFX and attempts are bing made to have that order lifted. A freezing order was obtained by a number of plaintiffs in Cyprus. The solicitors will seek to lift that freezing order.
Regarding the money held by AFX Capital Markets in Cyprus, the administrators note that CySEC refuses to disclose information until the Cypriot regulator has completed its investigation. The administrators are in touch with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to see whether it can encourage CySEC to provide information that will assist the administrators in their investigations.
Let’s look at the claims information that the UK administrators report.
- There are 12 unsecured creditor claims with an estimated value of GBP 383,460;
- To date, 181 clients have submitted claims in the sum of GBP 5,381,750 and there are further 422 clients who have yet to submit claims.
- Even though the directors of AFX provided a list of “closed” client accounts, six clients on that list have submitted claims totalling GBP 468,183.
- There are 64 clients who do not appear on the Directors’ list of accounts. These clients are claiming to be owed GBP 4,910,138.
Let’s recall that, in August 2019, the FCA announced that the High Court of Justice of England and Wales appointed special administrators to AFX Markets Limited. The special administration order appointed insolvency practitioners from CG Recovery Limited (CG Recovery) (which also trades as CG&Co) as special administrators of AFX Markets.
AFX Markets Limited is a UK registered company that has been authorised by the FCA since May 2012. AFX Markets acted as broker for customers trading on its online trading platforms (ww.afxgroup.com and www.stofs.co.uk), principally in foreign exchange and contracts for difference products.
