Castlestone Management “continues to operate as normal” despite having the FSA descend on its offices i
Castlestone Management “continues to operate as normal” despite having the FSA descend on its offices in London and Chichester on 20 July, with the group insisting that no action had been taken by the regulator and that its funds remain unaffected. “The FSA visit has had no effect on either the funds managed by Castlestone domiciled in the British Virgin Islands or the UCITS funds domiciled in Ireland,” said Castlestone, adding that the purpose of the FSA’s visit was to “obtain data the regulator feels may be relevant to that investigation”. Hardly the greatest announcement for a fund manager to make, and as Citywire Global pointed out in an article this week, the lack of clarity surrounding the FSA’s investigation has spooked a range of fund platforms including Novia and Cofunds. Both have taken the decision to halt new subscriptions into any of the group’s funds, whilst Skandia were said to be monitoring the situation with a spokesperson commenting: “It is looking likely that we will suspend the funds.”
Novia chief executive Bill Vasilieff (pictured) was quoted as saying: “We have stopped taking money until the situation becomes clear.” Four members of Castlestone’s staff have departed since May. Furthermore, the firm got its knuckles wrapped by the Irish Central Bank in June for not complying with the new rules under UCITS IV, leading to subscriptions being temporarily suspended in three of the group’s funds: the USD34million Aliquot Commodity UCITS, USD19.6million Aliquot Agriculture UCITS and the USD4million Intelligent Portfolio Asset Allocation UCITS funds. Castlestone subsequently issued a statement saying that it “undertook to improve the reporting process and implement several other management changes including the approval of an enhanced UCITS IV business plan which was approved prior to the UCITS IV implementation deadline”. The firm said it was now cooperating fully with the FSA investigation. A wise decision.
