Update as at the 13th March 2025
The Joint Administrators (Luke Charleton and Alan Large of EY) to BlackBee Investments Limited (“BBIL”) are responsible for administering the claims of investors for compensation under the Investor Compensation Act, 1998 (the “Act”) and have started certifying claims in respect of certain holdings with BBIL to include directly contacting the claimants with investments in those holdings.
The ICCL will also be contacting the respective claimants, once the certifications are received in respect of the above noted holdings.
It is important to note that the Act provides that the compensatable loss of an eligible investor must be certified by the Administrator appointed to the Firm pursuant to the Act. As such, the ICCL is unable to make any compensation payments, or provide any correspondence in respect of a certification, to an eligible investor unless the Joint Administrators to BBIL certify a compensatable loss.
Update as at the 20th February 2025
The ICCL continue to accept claim applications in respect of BlackBee Investments Limited (“BBIL”), however, any claim application after 19 November 2024 under section 32(2) of the Investor Compensation Act, 1998, will be treated as a 'late claim' and will require Central Bank of Ireland approval to be admitted to the claims process.
For the Central Bank of Ireland to consider the admission of the late claim application, a reason for the delay must be submitted to the ICCL with the claim application. The Central Bank of Ireland will have to be satisfied that the client of BBIL was unable to make the claim application in advance of the above-noted date. Only when the Central Bank of Ireland approval is received, can the claim application be processed by the ICCL.
Update as at the 17th December 2024
The Investor Compensation Company DAC (“ICCL”) is aware that on 3 December 2024 Luke Charleton and Alan Large of EY were appointed by the High Court as Joint Liquidators of City Quarter Capital II PLC, a connected entity to BlackBee Investments Limited.
City Quarter Capital II PLC is not an authorised investment firm nor a member firm of the Investor Compensation Scheme [‘ICS’] and as such no claim applications forms will be issued by the ICCL in respect of this entity.
Update as at the 8th October 2024
The ICCL continue to forward completed claim applications received to the Joint Administrators of BlackBee Investments Limited (“BBIL”) for their review and certification.
It is important to note, however, that under the Investor Compensation Act, 1998, the ICCL is required to set a date by when claim applications should be received with this date being the 19 November 2024 for BBIL. Should a claim application be received after this date, it will be treated as a “late” claim and will require Central Bank of Ireland approval to be admitted to the claims process.
In order for the Central Bank of Ireland to consider the admission of the late claim application, it must be submitted to the ICCL with a written reason for the delay. The Central Bank of Ireland will then have to be satisfied that the client of BBIL was unable to make the claim application in advance of the above-noted date. Only when the Central Bank of Ireland approval is received, can the claim application be processed by the ICCL.
If you believe that you are a client of BBIL and you have not yet received a claim application form, please contact either the Joint Administrators of BBIL via email at Blackbee.Investments@ie.ey.com or the ICCL at claims@investorcompensation.ie.
Alternatively, if you have already received a claim application form, we would encourage you to submit it to the ICCL as soon as possible via email to claims@investorcompensation.ie.
Update as at the 19th July 2024
The ICCL has forwarded all completed claim forms received to date to the Joint Administrators (Luke Charleton and Colin Farquharson of EY) of BlackBee Investments Limited (“BBIL”) for review and certification.
When the Administrator has assessed your claim and if a compensatable loss is certified, the Administrator will advise the ICCL of the compensation amount due. The ICCL will contact you at that time and advise you of the outcome of your claim, to include confirmation if any compensation is due.
It is important to note that by submitting a claim form, it does not necessarily mean that there are losses within your regulated investments. Equally, the submission of a claim form to the ICCL does not automatically imply that a client will receive compensation. The role of the Administrators is to determine whether a claimant is an eligible investor for the purposes of the Act and then to verify the level of compensation, if any, which each eligible investor is entitled to receive.
If you believe that you are a client of BBIL and you have not yet received a claim application form, please contact the Administrators of BBIL via email at Blackbee.Investments@ie.ey.com
Update as at the 19th October 2023
The ICCL has now completed the issuance of claim forms to all known clients of BlackBee Investments Limited (“BBIL”). The ICCL has also recently published a notice in the Irish Examiner and the Echo inviting eligible clients of BBIL to contact us and request a claim application form.
Should you believe that you are a client of BBIL and you have not received a claim application form to date, please contact us via email at claims@investorcompensation.ie.
Please note that the ICCL will require confirmation from the Joint Administrators that you are a client of BBIL prior to issuing a claim application form. The ICCL will also require certain select information from a potential client prior to us being able to make a request to the Joint Administrators. This information will include, but may not be limited to,
- Full name;
- Date of Birth;
- Postal Address (to include Eircode);
- Email Address (if you wish for us to correspond with you by email);
- BBIL Reference number (if available); and
- Joint Account Holder name (if applicable).
The ICCL continues to encourage all clients of BBIL who have received a claim form to return a fully completed and signed form to the ICCL on or before the 31st October 2023. Should you have any issues or questions when completing your claim form please contact us by email at claims@investorcompensation.ie.
Update as at 11th September 2023
The ICCL has made substantial progress in the last number of weeks issuing claim forms to clients of BlackBee Investments Limited. Of those claim forms issued, in excess of 350 forms have been returned to the ICCL and will be provided to the Administrators for their consideration in the claim process.
The ICCL is encouraging all clients of BBIL who have received a claim form to return a fully completed and signed form to the ICCL on or before the 31st October 2023.
Should you have any issues or questions when completing your claim form please contact us by email at claims@investorcompensation.ie.
Update as at 26th July 2023
The ICCL has commenced the issuance of claim forms to clients of BlackBee Investments Limited, as per the list of clients supplied by the Joint Official Liquidators/Administrators.
It is important to note that unregulated investment services are not covered by the Investor Compensation Scheme and accordingly, only those clients who obtained regulated investment services should expect to receive a claim form.
As noted in previous updates, the process of issuing claim forms will take a number of weeks to complete but we will continue to update this webpage with our progress over the coming weeks.
Update as at 18th July 2023
The ICCL has now received a list of clients who obtained regulated investment services from BlackBee Investments Limited. This list has been entered into the ICCL’s systems and we are preparing to issue claim forms in the coming weeks.
The issuance of claim forms and the collection of responses will take a number of weeks to complete with a current estimated date of the end of September to complete this process. As such, and if you haven’t yet received a claim form but believe that you have obtained regulated investment services from BlackBee Investments Limited, please wait until the end of September before contacting us. When you have received the claim form, please complete fully, and return to the ICCL as soon as feasible. The forms will contain detailed instructions for completion.
It is important to note that unregulated investment services are not covered by the investor compensation scheme and accordingly, only those clients who obtained regulated investment services should expect to receive a claim form.
Further to the above, it is important to note that by receiving a claim form it does not necessarily mean that there are losses within your regulated investments. The ICCL has no access to information regarding the status of your investments, this information resides with the Joint Liquidators, to whom any queries should be directed in that context. The ICCL is obliged under the Investor Compensation Act, 1998 (the “Act”) to issue claim forms within 5 months of the date of the Administrators’ appointment which is calculated as the 19th October 2023. As such, these claim forms are issued in isolation of the Liquidator’s work in respect of client account reconciliations.
Finally, it should also be noted that the submission of the claim form to the ICCL does not automatically mean that a client would receive compensation. The ICCL is unable to make any payment of compensation until such time as the Administrators to BlackBee Investments Limited certify a compensatable loss as defined within the Act. The ICCL has no role in the certification process this rests solely with the Administrators and is a mandatory requirement to any compensation payment that may fall due.
Update as at 19th May 2023
The Investor Compensation Company (“ICCL”) is aware that Joint Administrators (Luke Charleton and Colin Farquharson of EY) were appointed to BlackBee Investments Limited by the High-Court on 19 May 2023. The Joint Administrators are also the Joint Official Liquidators of BlackBee Investments Limited.
The ICCL is in contact with the Joint Administrators of BlackBee Investments Limited to receive a list of clients that obtained regulated investment services from BlackBee Investments Limited. When the ICCL has received and validated the client list from the Joint Administrators, the ICCL will contact all clients directly. You do not need to contact the ICCL at this time.
Please note that the ICCL does not have access to the client records of BlackBee Investments Limited.
If you have a query about your regulated investment with BlackBee Investments Limited, please continue to contact the Joint Official Liquidators by email at Blackbee.Investments@ie.ey.com.
What is the ICCL?
The ICCL is part of the financial safety-net in Ireland. It can pay statutory compensation in certain circumstances and is funded by the investment industry through the payment of statutory levies.
What does the ICCL do?
Within five months of a Central Bank of Ireland regulated investment firm entering insolvency, the ICCL is required to invite claims from the regulated clients. The Joint Administrators will review each claim and decide if it is entitled to compensation in accordance with the Investor Compensation Act, 1998. In basic terms, the ICCL can pay compensation when regulated client money or regulated client assets are not available (missing).
What are the statutory levels of compensation?
The statutory compensation limit is the lower of 90% of your compensatable loss, or €20,000.
Is the ICCL inviting claims now?
At this time, the ICCL is not inviting claims for compensation. This is because the ICCL must wait to receive the client list from the Joint Administrators. The ICCL will contact you directly once it has received and validated the client list.
How long will it take for the ICCL to contact me?
This process is likely to take a number of weeks to complete. Unfortunately, and until such time as we receive the above noted data, we are unable to provide any additional information. This is because we do not have access to the books and records of BlackBee Investments Limited.
Where can I get further information on claiming compensation?
Click here to read the ICCL's information booklet for private investors "claiming compensation when an investment firm fails".