The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) - the industry’s consumer compensation safety-net - has declared six firms in default over the past two months.

The FSCS said today that so far this year it has declared a total of 23 firms in default, with the top five (in terms of reimbursements to clients) so far costing up to £5.6m in compensation payments.

The default declarations open the doors to compensation of up to £85,000 per case to be paid to clients who have lost money.

The recently-failed firms, listed today by the FSCS, include Green Gem Financial Limited of Chester Le Street; Thorn Investment & Pension Services of Bradford and Sedulo Wealth Management of Lichfield.

The six firms have all gone out of business and are unable to meet claims, the FSCS said.

Latest 6 defaults declared by FSCS from 1 Aug to 30 Sept:

 Source: FSCS

James Darbyshire, chief counsel at the FSCS, said: “We continue to receive claims months or even years after a firm fails. We are reaching out to let people know that compensation may be available if they have suffered losses due to the failure of these six financial services firms.”

He pointed out that the government-backed and industry-funded FSCS was a free and independent service.

Top 5 five in terms of compensation paid out (by the end of September):

Source: FSCS