Wealth manager City & Merchant Limited (FRN 154182), which had trading restrictions imposed on it by the FCA in June, has gone into liquidation.

Dermot Coakley and Shaun Walker of WSM Marks Bloom LLP have been appointed as joint liquidators.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme said it is now open to customer claims against the firm.

The regulator took action against the firm three months ago to prevent it from conducting any regulated activities after it failed to pay two Financial Ombudsman awards to clients and had not provided accounts and other information required.

The firm, which was based in the iconic Leadenhall building in the City of London, was ordered to halt Part 4A regulated business (most retail finance business) without express FCA approval for individual tasks.

The firm, incorporated in 1992, was involved in a variety of investment sectors including corporate finance, fund management and managing investments for clients. It had permission to advise on investments (except on pension transfers and pension opt outs), deal in investments and run collective investments.

The FCA said it imposed restrictions because it had “serious concerns” the firm was not capable of being “effectively supervised” by the authority.

The regulator said the firm had repeatedly failed to report all transactions it had executed since 1 April, had not submitted audited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023, and failed to notify the authority of a notice by the Registrar of Companies on 28 May 2024 to strike it off the Register of Companies.

The firm had two directors, who held between them the SMF 3, SMF 16 and SMF 17 functions. The firm was also a principal for two appointed reps. The watchdog said in June it believed the firm was taking steps to terminate the contractual relationships between it and the two appointed reps.

The FCA said it noted that the firm’s “fund management” appeared to be a service that assists clients in trading non-mainstream assets within a fund structure.

The firm reported corporate finance revenues of £8,000, funds under management of £1,577,000 and gross commission and brokerage revenues of £101,000 for the period 1 January 2024 to 31 March 2024.

The FCA said the joint liquidators will now wind up the firm for the benefit of creditors. The liquidators will contact customers with further details of how they are affected.

The FSCS said: "Although we are accepting claims against City & Merchant, they will not be immediately passed to our claims processing teams for assessment. This is because we will be investigating the firm to determine whether claims meet the qualifying conditions for compensation, and this may take some time."