The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has completed its investigations into Rowanmoor Personal Pensions and claims will now start to be assessed in waves.
According to an update on the lifeboat scheme’s website, claims submitted against Rowanmoor Personal Pensions will now be moved to its claims processing teams for assessment.
The FSCS said: “They will be moved in waves so that we can manage the volume of claims most efficiently. If the status of your claim doesn’t change straight away, please don’t worry - nothing has gone wrong, we are still working through them all.”
Each claim will need to be considered by the FSCS on a case-by-case basis to determine whether it is eligible for compensation.
Rowanmoor entered administration last August under the weight of hundreds of complaints related to failed offshore investments in its Sipps.
These were then re-routed from the Financial Ombudsman Service to the FSCS, which has been investigating them since.
Some of those claims date back to 2019, and investors have previously told FT Adviser of the financial hardship they are facing due to the delays in settling their claims, with one investor who is nearing retirement saying he will have to sell his house to make ends meet.
The firm hasn’t yet been declared in default. This can only happen once it’s confirmed that at least one claim against the firm is valid.
In July, FT Adviser reported that claims against Rowanmoor could be delayed by half a year as the FSCS worked to finish its investigation.
Questions had been raised by many investors about the investigation, after the Fos had found in their favour in a sample case in 2022, which ultimately brought Rowanmoor to its knees.
But the FSCS assured claimants in May that it was not duplicating work already done by the ombudsman.
It said the way it determines claims and the way the Fos determines its complaints are different, particularly when it comes to the question of whether the firm owes a civil liability to its claimant, which is a core test for claims with the FSCS, but does not determine a Fos decision.
A spokesperson told FT Adviser at the time: "The Fos determines complaints based on whether it considers that regulated firms acted in a way which was fair and reasonable in the circumstances.
"The Fos does not decide complaints based on whether a firm owes a civil liability to a complainant, which is the test that FSCS must apply under our rules.
"This means that the eligibility criteria under our rules will not necessarily be met just because the Fos may uphold a complaint in similar circumstances."
amy.austin@ft.com
