FSA alerts UK investors to Spanish regulators action against Thibault

Thibault, which provides investment services to clients, has been targeting UK investors from Barcelona. Thibault is a Spanish company operating from Barcelona with a London Freepost address. It is not authorised to conduct investment business from within the UK, nor is it regulated by the FSA or by any other UK regulatory body.

The CNMV has issued a public warning advising that Thibault is not registered with the CNMV. The CNMV has stated that it has evidence of Thibault receiving and passing on securities orders from investors, without being in possession of CNMV authorisation.

The CNMV has initiated proceedings against Thibault, its current director and its former director. It has required Thibault to cease its activities and not to take on any new clients. Thibault has also been instructed to close its existing client relationships in a way that protects those clients interests.

The FSA advises investors always to check whether a firm is authorised in the UK by ringing the FSA consumer helpline or checking the list of firms on the Central Register via the FSAs website, www.fsa.gov.uk. If a firm is not authorised, investors will not have the protection of the regulatory regime in the UK, including the ombudsman service, nor be able to seek compensation from the Investors Compensation Scheme.

The CNMV would be interested to hear from any UK investors who have had dealings with Thibault. They should write to the following address:

Comisin Nacional del Mercado de Valores Departamento de Atencin al Pblico Paseo de la Castellana, 19 28046-Madrid, Spain

The full text of the Notice issued by the CNMV follows.

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC 6/2000 under Art. 64.7 of the [Spanish] Securities Market Act

Pursuant to Article 64.7 of the [Spanish] Securities Market Act, the public is advised that:

THIBAULT INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISORY CORPORATION SA, a company based in Barcelona at the following address: el Edificio Maci, Calle Francesco Maci n 7, 4 B, and whose sole director is STEPHEN JOHN BRUMFITT ESQ,

1. Is not an institution registered with the Comisin Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV);

2. Is not authorised to solicit or collect savings from the public;

3. The CNMV has evidence that it has been carrying on activities typical of investment firms without being in possession of the mandatory authorisation;

4. The Council of the CNMV has initiated sanctions proceedings against THIBAULT INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISORY CORPORATION SA and its successive sole directors NEIL A. OSTERLAAK ESQ and STEPHEN JOHN BRUMFITT ESQ for the alleged commission of a very serious infringement of the law as defined in Article 99 (q) of Act No. 24 of 28 July 1998 relating to the Securities Market, as modified by Amending Act No. 37 of 16 November 1998 in respect of Item 6 of Article 64 of the same legal text, as the habitual carrying on of the business of receiving and passing on orders from investors without having obtained the mandatory authorisation and without having been registered on the appropriate administrative registers;

5. In compliance with Article 64.7 of the Securities Market Act, the Council of the CNVM, at its meeting of 31 October 2000, adopted certain measures to ensure that the offending activities cease, the measures consisting of the following:

   (a) Requiring THIBAULT INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISORY CORPORATION SA and its sole director STEPHEN JOHN BRUMFITT ESQ to proceed to cease their activities forthwith, abstaining from establishing new client relationships and from conducting any marketing, advertising or any other type of operations tending to create such relationships, cancelling those that have already been established in a manner and fashion that guarantees their clients' own interests and is to their benefit; and within ten days to send the Comisin Nacional del Mercado de Valores a letter by which they undertake the commitment to work to that end;

   (b) To impose on THIBAULT INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISORY CORPORATION SA and its sole director STEPHEN JOHN BRUMFITT ESQ a restraining fine of 200,000 pesetas for each day that passes from the expiry of the period referred to in the previous paragraph that is allowed to furnish evidence of compliance with the requirement without it being complied with, subject to a limit of two million pesetas; therefore once a period of ten days has passed without evidence of compliance with the requirement having been furnished, the fine will rise to two million pesetas and the requirement shall be deemed definitively not to have been complied with;

   (c) To warn the public of the existence of the conduct of THIBAULT INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISORY CORPORATION SA and its sole director STEPHEN JOHN BRUMFITT ESQ and of the aforementioned measures that have been adopted to make them cease their activities.

Notes for editors

1. Thibault International Financial Advisory Corporation is a Spanish company operating from Edificio Macia, 4B, Plaza Francesc Macia, 7, 08029, Barcelona. It has a London postal address, FREEPOST, LON19833, LONDON, SW18 12X.

2. Receiving and passing on orders from investors without the necessary authorisation from the CNMV in Spain is a breach of the Spanish Securities Markets Act.

3. The CNMV is the agency in charge of supervising and inspecting the Spanish Stock Markets and the activities of all the participants in those markets.

4. The FSA regulates the financial services industry and has four objectives under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000; maintaining market confidence; promoting public understanding of the financial system; the protection of consumers; and fighting financial crime.

5. The FSA aims to maintain efficient, orderly and clean financial markets and help retail consumers achieve a fair deal.

6. Earlier this year the FSA placed an alert on its consumer webpage setting out the dangers for UK investors of using the share advisory and dealing services of unauthorised firms based overseas.