Lifemark granted six more months to fix fund

The Luxembourg court has granted Lifemark administrators a further six months to find funders for the troubled backer of Keydata bonds.

IFAonline revealed in February the Investment Management Association (IMA) is leading efforts to shore up Lifemark, as part of a bid to recoup the fund management sector's £233m FSCS bill.

The IMA is in talks with the FSCS to work out how money could be collected from the indsutry for a loan to be used to solve Lifemark's liquidity problems and enable the fund to return a profit, IFAonline understands.

Fund managers are first in line for any return of their share of the £326m the FSCS levied the industry in February, mainly to cover the cost of Keydata's failure.

Lifemark's stay of execution comes just as Keydata founder Stewart Ford has been granted a judicial review into the FSA's handling of the collapse of his investment firm.

Ford has maintained the FSA made a "£450m cock-up" when it put Keydata into administration in 2009.

He blamed decisons made by junior staff at the FSA, who he has accused of mis-leading the insolvency court during a hearing to decide Keydata's fate.