Curtis Banks buys £3bn Alliance Trust Sipp business

Curtis Banks has bought the £3 billion Full Sipp business of Alliance Trust Savings, adding 6,000 Sipps to its own book.

Curtis Banks said the book was worth approximately £3 billion in assets under administration and means Curtis Banks now has 10,000 clients.

In a statement Curtis Banks said: ‘This acquisition creates a major business with significant sustainable future income and makes us well placed to succeed in the current environment. We see major consolidation in the Sipp industry in the next few years and we intend to be at the forefront of this process.’

It said it would be keeping all the Alliance Trust Savings staff and would rebrand the Sipps under the Curtis Banks name.

The acquisition will be completed by the end of the year.

In May 2011, Curtis Banks bought the book of business of troubled Sipp provider Montpelier Sipp Administration Services (MPAS) for £399,999. The deal has brought the firm around 1,400 Sipps and MPAS’s adviser connections.

Today the Financial Services Authority (FSA) imposed a £17,850 fine on Graeham Sampson, the former MPAS finance director.

Curtis Banks made a profit of £120,269 in the 31 December 2011, compared to a loss of £367,872 in 2010. It increased its number of active schemes from 780 to 3,700. A number of these resulted from the purchase of MPAS.