How investors are protected on The St. Mellons Investment

In a regulated environment like The St. Mellons Investment Trust, investors enjoy added layers of protection and transparency. The financial system is essential to our daily lives; we rely on banks to safeguard our money and make payments, just as we depend on investment firms to grow our wealth. Poorly regulated institutions can harm consumers and destabilize the financial system. Regulation sets rules to prevent issues and ensures that, if problems do arise, both consumers and the financial system are protected.

The St. Mellons Investment Trust is required to keep investors' financial instruments and uninvested funds separate from its own assets. We maintain precise records and accounts that clearly distinguish all investor funds and assets from those owned by The St. Mellons Investment Trust. Regular reconciliations of our internal records are conducted, and robust controls are implemented to minimize the risk of loss for our investors.

Financial instruments belonging to investors are held in their individual financial instrument accounts, separate from The St. Mellons Investment Trust’s own assets. To ensure the safety of investors' funds, they are held in safeguarding accounts within central banks, credit institutions, or qualifying money market funds licensed in the EU. These funds are only used to execute investors' orders, such as investments or withdrawals, or to cover any fees and charges payable to The St. Mellons Investment Trust. Importantly, these funds remain distinct from the firm’s own assets, ensuring that creditors of The St. Mellons Investment Trust cannot claim against them.

The Investor Compensation Scheme at The St. Mellons Investment Trust provides protection to investors by offering compensation in cases where the firm fails to return financial instruments or funds. This coverage typically applies to situations arising from operational errors, such as fraud, administrative malpractice, or if The St. Mellons Investment Trust were to go out of business.

Under the scheme, investors can claim up to 90% of their net loss, with a maximum compensation limit of $2,000,000. However, it's important to note that this scheme does not cover investment risks, such as poor performance of underlying assets, borrower defaults, or defaults by lending companies.

The St. Mellons Investment Trust is committed to protecting investors from excessive risk by carefully assessing their individual situations. As part of our regulatory obligations, we ensure that investors fully understand the risks associated with investing through The St. Mellons Investment Trust and that their financial situation can support these risks.

To fulfill this requirement, we ask investors to complete an assessment that evaluates whether our products align with their expectations, goals, and are appropriate given their knowledge and experience. The results of this assessment determine which products and services are made available to the investor.

At The St. Mellons Investment Trust, we are committed to providing investors with comprehensive information to support well-informed investment decisions. In a regulated environment, it is essential that information about investments and associated risks is presented in a standardized, user-friendly format. This approach is designed to help investors clearly understand the behavior of investment products and easily compare them with other available options.