MRC

[flint]

HSBC has not permitted purchases of Mercantile Investment Trust since the 10 for 1 issue in May.
At one stage, someone said that they thought this could be because they needed an updated KIID.

Does anyone else have this problem with their broker / platform or are you able to purchase MRC.

I am planning to escalate the issue and am hoping that any responses will prove helpful.

Thanks

[monabri]

I tried a " dummy buy" for MRC ( requested a quote for X shares) with my broker SVS. SVS gave me a buy price but I didn't press the buy button!

[flint]

Monabri

Thanks for that, now I can quote a broker who does not have the problem ( whatever it is ) that HSBC has.

[richfool]

I have bought (as in topped up an existing holding) since the 10 for 1 adjustment, without incident, (and without hesitation or deviation).

[flint]

Richfool

Could you let me know who the broker or platform was ?

Thanks

[richfool]

Richfool

Could you let me know who the broker or platform was ?

Thanks

Jarvis Investment Management (X-O).

I had an existing holding of MRC, and added to it, after the conversion.

Note, I usually have to tell my broker that I have read the KID for any new trusts I buy, that I don't hold already.

[ten0rman]

I have a holding in MRC with supposedly dividends re-invested, however the last dividend has NOT been re-invested. When I attempted to manually re-invest the proceeds, I was told that the platform, iWEB, no longer allows investment. This, by the way, is only since the 10 for 1 change.

FWIW, prior to the change, dividends were quite happily being re-invested. Also, the refusal to allow re-investment came up immediately I attempted a "buy", ie I didn't need to do anything other than attempt to buy. Finally, there was no mention of MFIID.

I've also tried to buy MRC via a Halifax Share Deal account & been refused, eg "We no longer allow investment in..." Not surprising really as iWEB is hosted on HSDL.

So, the question is, noting that other people have had problems, have we found out why?

ten0rman

[flint]

TenOrman

HSBC fixed the issue last week.
It was caused by them ( in layman's terms ) deleting the KID when they deleted the old £20+ shares and set up the new £2+ shares.
Their system requires that the " I have read the KID " box is ticked. There was no box to tick for more than 8 weeks.
Eventually I got someone to look at the JPMorgan site and see the KID for themselves.
Apparently Morningstar are responsible for updating the information on the website.
I was lucky in that the share price decreased from about 221p to about 215p over the period of time, otherwise I may have made more
of a fuss.

[ten0rman]

flint,

I did wonder about the KID, especially as when I tried to download or read it, I failed to do so even though there is a clickable link to it. Makes me wonder if IWEB & HSDL are the same.

Thanks,

ten0rman

[mc2fool]

Makes me wonder if IWEB & HSDL are the same.

No, IWeb is orange and HSDL is blue.

Other than that, the obvious pricing differences and some minor service differences, yes, they're the same. IWeb is HSDL's cheapo service.

[ten0rman]

flint,

Yes, I did realise after I'd posted that what I said wasn't very clear. What I meant to say was that I wondered if IWeb & HSDL were the same as HSBC, ie the apparent inability to download the KID being the reason why no investments were being allowed.

And yes, I do know that the two are virtually identical, after all, I actually have investments on both platforms - I just can't seem to get round to transferring the HSDL ones to IWeb.

Cheers,

ten0rman

[flint]

tenOrman

I suppose it is quite possible that HSDL also get their website data provided by Morningstar.
I know that HSBC do, but HSDL ?

[ten0rman]

flint,

You've fired me up!

Anyway, just now I found this:

" The investments’ operational and portfolio data on this website is sourced by Morningstar and is believed to be correct, but cannot be guaranteed."

on the HSDL website. Not that I understand the relevance!

ten0rman

[ModernMicawber]

Ah, I actually had a letter from iWeb regarding the Funding Circle income fund (FCIF) to say that due to “regulations introduced in January”, they wouldn’t be allowing any further investment, including dividend reinvestment.

They have given me until Oct 31 to transfer out that investment (and only that investment) in specie without any exit charge. This isn’t mandatory, I can just leave the holding there but not add to it, which is what I think I will do.

Not sure what FCIF have done to make the naughty list, there haven’t been any corporate actions as far as I can remember and I’ve held since not long after the launch.

[flint]

tenOrman

I think the relevance is that both ( HSBC and HSDL ) platforms use Morningstar as a data source and both were missing the KID post the 10 for 1 split.

It also looks as if both platforms, after the long absence, displayed the ( unchanged ) KID at the same time.

I surmise that there will be other platforms that use Morningstar for data.

Anyway the issue is now resolved - I not only learned something but ( luckily ) saved some money too.

[flint]

ModernMicawber

It is possible that FCIF have not produced a KID.
The absence of a KID can effectively prevent a purchase.
but, does not mean that you cannot maintain an existing holding.

[ten0rman]

An update.

I kept looking on the Iweb site to see if MRC had been restored. Eventually, on 20 August I wrote to them, and received a reply this am. The gist of the letter was that since MRC had done the split, they needed to supply an updated KID, and since this was not forthcoming, Iweb were unable to allow further investments. Now that an updated KID has been received, MRC is now back in normal working order. Unfortunately, this meant that the original dividend payment could not now be done as a DRIP as it had been paid as cash.

I have now satisfactorily re-invested that dividend payment as an ad-hoc trade.

ten0rman