Grant Thornton, the administrators of former structured product provider NDFA, has informed investors of its intention to keep the company in administration for a further 12 months.
In a statement on the company's website, Grant Thornton said a further year is required to continue running Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) products under its administration.
Grant Thornton partners Andrew Hosking and Martin Ellis were appointed joint administrators of NDF Administration and sister company Defined Returns in October 2009. In December 2009, they obtained a waiver from the FSA to enable NDFA to operate under the administrators' direction and reached an agreement with Outsourced Professional Administration Ltd (former sibling, Opal) to facilitate the various processes for the return of client monies, distribution of income, where applicable, and the cashing out or surrender of various investments, including Royal Bank of Scotland plans Skyline, Royal Deposit, Navigator and Autopilot.
According to Grant Thornton, the regulatory permissions from the FSA would probably be withdrawn if NDFA were put into liquidation before the transfer of the plan management of the RBS products, which "would force the early winding up of these investments".
RBS's head of equity derivatives and PIP sales UK told SRP the four products under Thornton's administration were issued in October 2009 and are set to mature in November 2014: "Grant Thornton took over the administration of these products when NDFA was placed into administration," he said. "Since then all the products issued by RBS IFA are under Legal & General's administration."
According to SRP, there are 52 products in the RBS IFA range in the UK including the three under NDFA administration, three issued in July 2009 under PricewaterhouseCoopers administration following Keydata being placed into administration and 46 administered by Legal & General.
NDF Administration and Defined Returns were placed into administration in 2009 over potential liabilities for selling products backed by failed investment bank Lehman Brothers. The structured products books of both NDFA and DR were acquired by Meteor Asset Manager in March 2010. The deal excluded products backed by Lehman Brothers, which led to the failure of NDFA and DRL.