Member Info for Muck165

PART 1

Law360, London (April 30, 2024, 4:13 PM BST) -- Vanquis Bank Ltd. is seeking an estimated £4.5 million ($5.6 million) from a law firm it says has sent it thousands of meritless complaints, accusing it of irresponsible lending in a "reckless and indiscriminate" approach to earn commission if a claim happens to succeed.

The lender alleged in a High Court claim on March 11, which has recently been made public, that it had been "deluged" by generic complaints submitted by claims manager TMS Legal Ltd. that it provided unaffordable credit to its cardholders. TMS Legal carries out business as "The Money Solicitor."

TMS sent almost 16,850 complaints to Vanquis on behalf of the lender's clients between October 2022 and the end of 2023, the claim said. Complaints are first sent to Vanquis itself, and clients can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to look at the case afresh if they are not satisfied with the decision, according to the filing.

Vanquis alleges that TMS, which specializes in claims for financial products that have sold wrongly, failed to make "reasonable enquiries" to determine whether there was sufficient information to support the complaint or if it was properly arguable. This breached the duties TMS owed its clients and was intended to cause the bank loss, Vanquis claims.

The lender claimed that it has suffered "considerable loss" both in the "time and cost of investigating (unmeritorious and unparticularized) claims which should never have been brought" and fees owed to the ombudsman.

Am pretty new here and have been trying to discover a little more about the legal action Vanquis are pursuing against the CMC. Apologies to LTH if what follows is “old news”

The CMC is TMS Legal. They’ve already been sanctioned last year following a complaint by Vanq for posting misleading “testimonials” on TikTok featuring actors not customers, and by the SRA for other failings

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/claimant-firms-tiktok-ads-ruled-to-be-misleading/5117899.article

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicitor-check/645041/#:~:text=1.1%20TMS%20Legal%20Limited%20(',the%20investigation%20of%20%C2%A31%2C350.

On 11 March Vanquis launched a High Court claim against TMS Legal.

https://caseboard.io/cases/dad1ae6a-c513-48df-bece-9beb799635d0

I can’t access the Particulars of Claim - an article by Law 360 from 30/4 best describes it but you have to register to get it and it’s long, so I’ll post separately in different Parts.

I think it will be early July Lucksin but yes, for me that will be a pivotal update.

Thanks!

LWHL - I think we have closed marginally above the 50dma. Could anyone confirm?

Latest blog from ABDX for anyone interested, this one describing what is involved in getting a CE mark.

https://www.abingdonhealth.com/technical-documentation-for-ivdr/

Forgot to add - the article is from June 23. If they had the biomarker and the binders ready to go then (which it looks like they did), then any CDMO appointment would I think have happened pretty soon after. So, IF this isn't all nonsense and we are involved then it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that we might be a fair way down the development path.

Usual caveat - lots of ifs buts and maybes here and more likely than not just fantastical hogwash.

More pure conjecture on this, but I do wonder if we might be somehow involved in this.....

https://aptamergroup.com/aptamer-group-and-neuro-bio-partner-to-develop-an-alzheimers-disease-diagnostic-test/

Neuro Bio (Oxford) have discovered the biomarker. Aptamer Group have created an associated Optimer binder (which is a Nucleic Acid molecule) . The next stage would be to get it all into an LFT.

As I say, our PCRD product is specifically designed for use with Nucleic Acid molecules. Aptamer Group are based just down the road from us in York. So, if APTA and Neuro-Bio were looking for a CDMO partner, which I assume they would be, then we would look to be a pretty obvious choice.

Pure conjecture though and could be entirely wrong!!

The unfairness extends to any regulated business in the CMC cross hairs, whether it be banks, fintech, or IFA's.

Honestly, I support a system which allows genuine complaints. That's to be encouraged. What's broken is, as you say, the ability for CMC's to basically through mud, cheaply and without justification, in the knowledge some might stick. Its a percentage game.

But if nothing changes then ultimately we we will end up with an industry more mindful of complaints than serving customers, and an increase in the volume of backside covering disclosures and disclaimers that, in my experience, most customers don't want or read.

We're in a straight jacket though. Regulation requires that we address any complaint, defined as "any expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not", and so the bar for a CMC to make a complaint is really low and every one of those needs to go through our administrative mill.

Its great to see FOS proposing to charge CMC's with case fees going forwards, but it would be wonderful if the FCA would just introduce some dispensation that it allowed us to respond with a single letter to the CMC, in respect of all complaints, confirming we have no discretionary commission exposure at all.

Doesn't sound too difficult to me...

Nice RNS. On sale at Boots already.

https://www.boots.com/boots-saliva-pregnancy-test-2-pack-10340838?cm_mmc=bmm-buk-google-ppc-_-PLAs_HeroCompare-_--_-PMax:+UK_Smart_Shopping_Baby&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8Men-4OPhgMVmplQBh1pegnQEAQYAiABEgLQ2fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Quite - doesn’t appear that Sidney did much DD before making the appointment.

And AP surely cannot have the time (even though the new role is likely part time), so why did he take the position? Obvious first thoughts are that Vast may not be paying him and he needs the cash, or that he’s laying groundwork’s for an exit from Vast.

Same story, better link

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/1045525/sidney-resources-taps-andrew-prelea-as-strategic-advisor-1045525.html

You might hope that AP would be devoting all his time to Vast at this critical juncture, but it would appear not….

https://www.wallstreet-online.de/nachricht/17990852-sidney-resources-corporation-welcomes-andrew-prelea-as-strategic-advisor-to-enhance-operational-expansion-and-production

Thursday...

https://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/news/AN_1715699937588199600/uk-earnings-trading-statements-calendar---next-7-days.aspx

Another TR1 for Schoders - institutions certainly interested and accumulating. Wonder if they are still going....

Over the last few months ABDX have been posting about their PCRD product, which aids developers of molecular based LFT's. This morning he put out two posts; the first relates to the use LFT's for dementia diagnosis and in particular how the use of chips greatly enhances the accuracy of the result, and the second relates to our AppDx reader app.

So I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that we have a customer who has developed a molecular based dementia LFT in conjunction with AppDx. My experience is that Yates rarely posts stuff like this himself unless ABDX have something in the workings.

Pure conjecture of course!! But if its right then the dementia diagnostic market is rather large to say the least.

@gmcc - just a thanks for posting this. It’s certainly very interesting once you get the subtitles to work in English, even though they remain a bit garbled. AffyXell has always excited me but I wasn’t fully are of the scale of operations and noted that they have 25 researchers on the various pipeline projects.

Posting for anyone interested, the Stroke Association Manifesto from last month.

If nothing else it’s worth reading the foreword and then letting the reality of what Upfront might have set in.

https://www.stroke.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/election/General%20Election%20Manifesto%20-%20Stroke%20Association.pdf

The confusing thing for me is why we haven't raised (not that I want that!), and why Alpha haven't insisted on it given we consolidated and increased headroom to give comfort to both lenders. Any thoughts?