Green made the comments about formerly Gibraltar-headquartered STM in a video interview with former Sky News journalist Martin Stanford, which is being shown on the firm’s Youtube channel.
STM
When Stanford asked Green why he invested in STM, which he has subsequently sold off in phases, part of his response was that he was on the hunt for a European pension provider to invest in but was struggling to find one.
“STM is an interesting one, and if I go right back to the beginning to explain, I felt rules were going to change and that they were going to be more in favour of people moving their pensions to European jurisdictions.
“So, I decided to look for a good provider of European pensions and I struggled. I made lots of phone calls, I remember one particular Friday afternoon where I was phoning just to find a good provider and I couldn’t get anybody to answer the phone, they had all gone home, it was 3pm.
“Eventually I decided STM was the best of a bad bunch and I decided to invest in STM on the basis they would improve their infrastructure and improve their administration for our clients.
“I actually put staff in, so some of my staff went to work for STM to make sure they had a good administration structure, and I also made sure the costs for clients were dramatically reduced,” Green said.
Part of the investment, Green said, was a guarantee that deVere clients would pay “dramatically” less than any other brokers.
“STM reduced their charges [for deVere clients] by some £500 ($692, €563), which was big in the market place,” he said.
Conflict of interest
Green said in the interview that he was open with clients about his investment in STM and denies there was any conflict of interest.
Clients, he said, liked the fact he had made an investment in the provider as it showed he was supporting it.
He said his financial interest in STM was only ever intended to be short term.
“I actually received more complaints once I took the money out, which was several fold. For one, people complained, ‘why have you taken the money out?’ and two, the service has unfortunately gone down since I’ve taken my money out,” he said.
International Adviser reported in January that STM’s chief executive was being investigated by the Money Laundering Unit of the Royal Gibraltar Police on suspicion of failure to disclose. Further, the firm announced the same month it was moving its headquarters from Gibraltar to the UK.
Green agreed with Stanford that having the undercut rates for his clients to invest in STM was a big incentive.
“Let’s remember, three regulators approved the purchase. STM is in Gibraltar, Jersey and Malta.
“Each of those regulators approved the purchase. We declared it to all clients and our clients gained from it. So, conflict of interest? No, I don’t think that was a conflict of interest,” Green said.
IA contacted STM for comment, but none was received at the time of this article being published.
Hard selling and recruitment
The interview also addresses allegations of deVere using hard-selling tactics.
Green refutes this and said the firm has a culture where the clients’ needs are put first.
“We have always applied various principles, that apply worldwide, that if you would not do it for your mum, your dad, your brother or for your children, then you should not be doing it,” he said.
Stanfield questioned Green on this, pointedly stating: “Be aware, there are a few former employees of deVere who disagree with you about that, they feel they were schooled in a hard sell, quite ruthless organisation where they only thing that mattered was getting the sale.”
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