The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has pledged that it will continue to review the cases of thousands of victims of the London Capital and Finance (LCF) £236m mini-bond collapse.

The compensation body said that despite the Coronavirus outbreak it was still working daily to assess claims and was reviewing nearly 1m pieces of information.

A total of 11,600 investors were hit by the £236m collapse of ‘mini-bond’ firm London Capital & Finance (LCF). 

Earlier this month Law firm Shearman & Sterling applied for a judicial review into the FSCS’s handling of compensation for victims of the £236m LCF mini-bond firm.

Earlier this year the Financial Services Compensation Scheme made the first pay-outs of just under £2.7m to 135 victims of the LCF mini-bond firm collapse however many thousands of other victims remain in limbo because they may not be eligible for compensation under FSCS rules. This is because the mini-bonds were seen as loans rather than investments and are potentially outside the remit of the FSCS.

The FSCS said earlier this year that it could not help 283 victims because they became customers before the firm was authorised in June 2016.

In a statement today the FSCS said: “In light of the ongoing Covid-19 situation, FSCS wants to reassure LCF customers that it is doing everything it can to continue working to reach a point where we can assess claims as efficiently and effectively as possible.”

FSCS staff are determining whether customers were given “misleading” advice by LCF. Among the evidence being analysed are telephone call recordings, emails and records within LCF's customer database.

Caroline Rainbird, FSCS's chief executive, said, "We're continuing to work hard to review the vast amount of information we have gathered. It is vital that we do this to help us understand which LCF customers were given advice so that we can reach decisions on claims. 

"We realise that times of uncertainty can be hugely unsettling. We want to reassure all our customers that we are doing all we can, particularly in light of the ongoing Covid-19 situation, to continue our business as usual to get our customers back on track." 

The FSCS says it will provide a further update soon as more information is available and will aim to confirm when it will start issuing compensation. It said LCF customers do not need to take any action.

Updates on the LCF case are on the FSCS website.