247 Moneybox

Website Update 31 March 2022 – Dividend to Eligible Redress Customers and Other Unsecured Creditors

• I am pleased to be able to report that on 31 March 2022, a first and final dividend of 9.35 pence in the pound was declared to the above. This means that for every pound you were due in terms of your redress or unsecured creditor claim, you will receive 9.35 pence, ie 9.35 % of your total claim. By way of example, a customer or creditor with a claim of £1000 will therefore receive a payment of £93.50.
• This dividend is due and payable to those customers eligible for Redress and whose claims were either challenged and subsequently upheld or accepted by the Administrators prior to closure of all claims on 31 January 2021.
• Trade and expense creditors whose claims were received and admitted for dividend purposes will also benefit from this dividend and payment to these will be made by either by cheque or electronic transfer over the course of the next 14 days.
• All customers eligible to receive a dividend and who have updated their bank details following our recent circulars, may also expect to receive payment of the dividend over the course of the next 14 days. Payment will be made electronically to the account details provided by you on your 247 Moneybox customer portal. We would therefore urge you to check your bank account periodically over the next 14 days to confirm receipt. If you have not received your dividend by Friday 15 April, please contact us via email at 247dividend@harrisons.uk.com and we will respond to your enquiry as soon as possible. Please refrain from calling any of the Harrisons phone numbers as staff manning these lines will be unable to assist you.
• For those customers who, despite our recent circulars have failed to update to their bank details, under insolvency legislation, we are required to remit these funds to the Insolvency Services Account as unclaimed dividends. I can confirm that details of all individual customers and creditors together with details of their individual dividends due have been provided to the Unclaimed Monies Team at the Insolvency Service. Please note that this does not mean that you have lost your rights to receive the dividend, however you will need to contact the Unclaimed Monies Team at following address to request payment from it directly:- 

Unclaimed Monies Team

Estate Accounts & Scanning

Insolvency Service

Cannon House

PO Box 16652

Birmingham B2 2HR

• When contacting the Unclaimed Monies Team, we would suggest you quote reference UC Active Securities Limited. We would also suggest you quote your name, address and details of the dividend due to you. Details of your dividend can be found by logging on to your 247 customer portal by 30 June 2022, thereafter you will need to contact us at 247dividend@harrisons.uk.com.

• For any further enquiries please email 247dividend@harrisons.uk.com and we will endeavour to respond to your enquiry as soon as possible.

Active Securities Limited T/A 247 Moneybox (‘247’) – Website Update 19 January 2022

Sale of Customer Loan Book

Further to our most recent update dated 9 November 2021, I am pleased to report that a sale of the 247 customer loan book (loans due from customers not eligible for Redress) was completed to Lantern Debt Recovery Services Limited, ‘Lantern’, on 30 December 2021. Further details concerning this sale will be available in our next report.

Please note therefore that customers not eligible for Redress and that have remaining balances due on their loans, may receive communication from Lantern directly concerning their account. Equally, this category of customer should contact Lantern directly concerning any ongoing issues in relation to their account and no longer 247. Lantern’s contact details are as follows:-

Telephone number: 0113 887 6876 – Option 1 for payments and option 2 to speak to an agent

Customer Service Email: customerservice@lanternuk.com

Chat facility through their website: www.lanternuk.com

Court Application to Pay a Dividend from the Administration

Following the sale of the loan book to Lantern, our solicitors were instructed to make an application to court to seek authority to pay a dividend to all unsecured creditors including customers entitled to Redress.

Unfortunately, due to a large backlog across all courts, we have been advised that our application would unlikely to be heard until June this year. There is no guarantee even for June and it is entirely possible that further delays that may be experienced in providing further information that the judge may require in contemplation of making the Order.

Whilst out of our control, we understand that this timescale is unacceptable to customers and creditors awaiting dividend payments. Such a delay would result in monies not being available until July at the earliest and of course additional costs would be incurred in maintaining the Administration for this period.

Move to Liquidation

As an alternative and to reduce the timescales and provide a greater degree of certainty to customers and creditors regarding the payment of a dividend, it is the Joint Administrators intention (as contemplated within the original proposals circulated to creditors) to move 247 to liquidation imminently for the purposes of paying a dividend to customers and creditors as soon as possible. In these circumstances the current Joint administrators will become the joint liquidators of 247 and continuity will be maintained. Whilst consent is not required from the FCA concerning this matter, we have advised it of our intentions.

It is anticipated that on the basis that 247 proceeds into liquidation within the next 7 days, we would hope to be in a position to pay a dividend to creditors in March

Bank Account Details – URGENT

In addition to our previous website update, in an attempt to expedite matters, if you have qualified for redress you will have also received at least 2 email communications requesting that you update your bank account details via the 247 portal in preparation of the dividend being paid. This will enable us to pay any dividend as soon as possible.  WE URGE YOU ONCE AGAIN TO GO TO YOUR CUSTOMER PORTAL AND UPDATE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE OTHERWISE YOU MAY MISS OUT ON RECEIVING ANY DIVIDEND WHEN IT IS EVENTUALLY PAID. IF YOU CHANGE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT AGAIN BEFORE A DIVIDEND IS PAID YOU WILL NEED TO GO THOUGH THE PROCESS OF UPDATING YOUR BANK DETAILS AGAIN.

Please click HERE for latest update.

Website Update – 9 November 2021

• All customers eligible to receive redress have been identified including those subject to the challenge and manual review process
• This provides us with full details of each qualifying customer’s claim.  
• TO REINFORCE ALL PREVIOUS CUSTOMER AND CREDITOR COMMUNICATIONS, PLEASE BE AWARE THAT YOUR CLAIM DOES NOT REPRESENT THE PAYMENT YOU WILL RECEIVE FROM THE ADMINISTRATION, WHICH WILL BE MINIMAL AND A VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE VALUE OF YOUR TOTAL CLAIM. CURRENT ESTIMATES SUGGEST A PAYMENT OF ONLY BETWEEN 5 AND 10 PERCENT OF THE CLAIM YOU ARE ENTITLED TO. THIS IS DUE TO THE SUBSTANTIAL VOLUME AND VALUE OF CUSTOMER CLAIMS, BUT IS SUBJECT TO THE FINAL COSTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION AND THE REALISATIONS RECEIVED FROM THE SALE OF THE POST REDRESS LOAN BOOK.
• After applying all customer redress claims, we have now identified and extracted the remaining loans available for sale or collection
• We have commenced a sale process and are in contact with several parties interested in acquiring the residual loan book post application of customer redress claims
• The sale process involves the provision of substantial amounts of data that tracks the performance of the loan book over a period of time and which forms the basis of offers that are likely to be made.
• Whilst we have no timeframe for completion of the sale, we are working as fast as we can to achieve this, but to a large extent are subject to how quickly the purchasers make their offers and proceed to completion
• We had hoped to have the sale completed by the end of November 2021 and whilst we will continue to push the purchasers for this, there is no certainty of achieving this and therefore it may fall into December.
• To try and expedite the payment of a dividend to all qualifying customers, we sought counsels opinion with regard to making an application to court in advance of a sale of the loan book being completed in order to enable us to make a distribution to qualifying customers immediately post sale directly from the Administration. Unfortunately, counsels advice is that such an application should not be made until such time as the sale has been completed and the final percentage of dividend payment established. The result of this is that delays will be encountered following a sale of the loan book, whilst we make such an application. We will therefore be in the hands of the court timetable and consequently unfortunately cannot be more specific on the  timings of when the dividend will be paid. However, given that the sale has yet to be concluded and the time of the year in relation to the courts availability, it is unlikely that a dividend will be paid in this calendar year.
• We apologise for the continuing delays that have remained outside of our control, HMRC corporation tax refund having only been received in October 21. Please understand that we cannot make payment of a dividend until all assets have been realized. To attempt to pay an interim dividend involving many thousands of customers would make such a process financially unviable resulting in the monies being available with which to pay a dividend significantly reduced or even extinguished.
• To also try and expedite matters, if you have qualified for redress you will have recently received email communication requesting that you update your bank account details via the portal in preparation of the dividend being paid. This will at least allow us to pay any dividend as soon as we have court sanction. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED SUCH AN EMAIL, WE URGE YOU TO GO TO YOUR CUSTOMER PORTAL AND UPDATE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE OTHERWISE YOU MAY MISS OUT ON RECEIVING ANY DIVIDEND WHEN IT IS EVENTUALLY PAID. IF YOU CHANGE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT AGAIN BEFORE A DIVIDEND IS PAID YOU WILL NEED TO GO THOUGH THE PROCESS OF UPDATING YOUR BANK DETAILS AGAIN.
• In light of the above timings we have requested a further 1 year extension to the Administration, albeit we do still expect to be in a position to pay a dividend be early in the new year at the latest.

Paul Boyle, David Clements and Tony Murphy of Harrisons Business Recovery and Insolvency (London) Limited were appointed as joint administrators of Active Securities Limited trading as 247 Moneybox (the Company) on 29 November 2019 (the Joint Administrators).

The Company provided lending services to the UK consumer market.

Following the appointment of the Joint Administrators:

All new lending activity has ceased; and
Customers should continue to make repayments for all outstanding loans in the usual way. Please note, if you receive any requests to make payment to any other bank accounts, please inform the customer service team immediately on services@247moneybox.com or call 0207 183 8078.

The Company’s customer service team remains available to assist existing customers with any queries.

The Joint Administrators will conduct an orderly wind down of the business and seek to recover the assets of the Company for the benefit of its creditors.

It is anticipated that the orderly wind down of the Company’s business may, if applicable, include a sale of the assets of the Company. The Joint Administrators will also commence work to identify all creditors of the Company in accordance with their statutory duties and obligations under the Insolvency Act 1986. Those customers with complaints (whether on grounds of affordability or other) should continue to approach the Company in administration. Any such claim will be treated as an unsecured creditor claim.

The Company remains regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority who will continue to supervise the Joint Administrators’ activities throughout the administration process.

For all enquiries please contact the customer services team on customer.services@247moneybox.com or call 0207 183 8078. Please refer to the 247moneybox website for further updates.

www.247moneybox.com

Please remember, be aware to scams. Never give personal information or account details to anyone who contacts you unexpectedly. We will never ask for your bank details.

Active Website Update – Customer Redress Claims, Dividend Prospects and Timings

1. Redress Claims

• 1.1 From the beginning of September 2020, the Joint Administrators began the process of agreeing Redress claims for customers of Active Securities Limited T/A 247 Moneybox.
• 1.2 Over 425,000 former customers were contacted by email, telephone and national advertisement, in an attempt to provide all customers with a fair opportunity to log on to their customer portal and make a Redress claim in the Administration proceedings.
• 1.3 The customer portal identified (based upon criteria recognised by the FCA) whether or not customers were entitled to Redress.
  • Customers entitled to Redress were notified that they should access their customer portal to view the level of their Redress entitlement on an individual loan by loan basis.
  • The customer portal allowed Redress to be accepted and also allowed customers to have their claim agreed by simply accepting the Redress amount at the push of a button.
• 1.4 Customers that were either not entitled to Redress, or those who were not satisfied with the Redress amount calculated by the Joint Administrators, were given the opportunity (through the customer portal) to challenge the basis of the Joint Administrators’ decision. In these circumstances, customers moved into a separate manual review process (“Challenge Pool”) for further consideration by the Joint Administrators. Additional information has been requested from these customers to enable the Joint Administrators to consider the claims of the Challenge Pool.
• 1.5 The deadline to accept or challenge claims for Redress expired on 31 January 2021.
  • As the redress claim deadline has passed, the redress page on the customer portal is no longer visible. If you have already submitted your claim, you do not need to do anything further.
• 1.6 The deadline for the provision of the additional information required from those customers in the Challenge Pool expired on 31 March 2021. NB: No further claims can be considered following the expiration of the deadlines above.
• 1.7 The Joint Administrators have contacted some 9,352 customers within the Challenge Pool, relating to in excess of 28,000 loans. The manual review process, which involves reviewing all additional information provided by customers within the Challenge Pool on an individual loan basis, is currently ongoing. The substantial number of customers within the Challenge Pool makes this a time consuming process, but provides the fairest means of evaluating a customer’s entitlement to Redress. The Joint Administrators owe a duty of care to all creditors to ensure that only those customers rightly entitled to Redress are included for any potential dividend that may become available.

2. Dividend prospects and timing

• 2.1 It had originally been hoped that any potential dividend to customers and creditors would have been available by the end of June 2021. This now appears increasingly unlikely due to the following reasons/tasks to be completed:
  • The Joint Administrators have sought and are awaiting final legal advice that may impact on any potential dividend that may become available.
  • The substantial level of manual reviews still to be completed in respect of the Challenge Pool.
  • The final agreement of all creditor claims.
  • The completion of realisations from any potential sale of the remaining customer loan book post Redress.
  • Further additional realisations yet to be made within the Administration, in particular a potential corporation tax refund.
  • Application to Court to seek consent for the Joint Administrators to distribute any potential dividend to customers and creditors, or in the alternative, moving from Administration to Liquidation to complete the potential dividend and realisation processes.
• 2.2 The Joint Administrators are continuing to work as quickly as possible to achieve all of the above, in the shortest timescale possible. We would therefore kindly request that customers do not chase timings of any potential dividends as this only results in delaying the process.
• 2.3 Please note that any potential dividend remains uncertain at this time, but it is likely to be very modest. Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide customers with a more accurate estimated dividend, as the quantum is not only dependent on the outstanding legal advice we are awaiting, but also the final level of agreed claims and final level of realisations (which are yet to be completed).

3. Credit record

• 3.1 Unfortunately, the Joint Administrators are unable to request the removal of loan information from Redress customers’ credit records until the Redress exercise has been completed.
• 3.2 It may be prudent to contact your credit reference agency (“CRA”), as it is our understanding that some CRAs are deleting loan data once a company has entered into Administration. I would note that this is at the absolute discretion of the CRA and not within the control of the Joint Administrators .
  Further updates will be available in our next report to creditors, which will be posted to our website by 29 June 2021.