The Financial Services Compensation Scheme will be closing the London Capital and Finance (LCF) compensation scheme on 31 October 2022.

The FSCS has been administering the scheme on behalf of the government since November 2021.

Since the scheme began, the FSCS have been able to pay 99.5% of customers eligible for compensation.

It has paid out a total of £115m in compensation.

Yet there are a small number of claims that thee FSCS has still not been able to pay.

This is in cases where the lifeboat fund requested information multiple times but had no reply.

In other circumstances, the bondholders have passed away and the FSCS has not been able to locate their next of kin.

The FSCS said it may be able to pay these claims in exceptional circumstances after 31 October 2022.

However it warned it may take longer to process these claims and pay compensation.

The FSCS said that people who received a cheque will still be able to cash it after 31 October 2022, as long as it is cashed within six months of the issue date.

The compensation scheme was initially scheduled to close on 20 April 2022 but the FSCS had to extend the deadline.

This is because it had 30 bonds left to pay to bondholders where addresses or other details were out of date.

LCF bondholders have been regular targets of scammers.

In January, the administrators of LCF, Smith & Williamson, were shown emails sent to LCF bondholders in which LCF director Michael Thomson was being impersonated by unknown individuals.

In April, the FSCS warned that fraudsters using the company names LC Holdings and Capital Finance were approaching LCF bondholders.

The fraudsters were claiming to be able to get compensation for the full amount of LCF investments.

The FSCS stated that both firms are scams and warned that there may be others.

In May, an LCF bondholder received a fraudulent letter claiming to be from Trading Standards.

The LCF compensation scheme has created a precedent in relation to mini-bond scandals.

Baroness Susan Kramer recently called for a judge-led inquiry into the Blackmore Bond saga. She hopes it would lead victims to receive a compensation as well.