TAYLOR Asset Managers has never filed a solvency certificate with the Irish Brokers' Association (IBA), The Irish Times has learned.

The firm operated by the missing broker, Mr Tony Taylor, and now in liquidation, only applied for registration with the IBA in March this year, and did not submit an MT526 solvency certificate at that time.

The IBA requires such a certificate for its members to comply with the 1989 Insurance Act, and it was originally envisaged that such a document would also be required for IBA members to comply with the more recent Investment Intermediaries Act.

However as reported by The Irish Times last week, the IBA has not instituted the procedures envisaged in the Act to vet its members' suitability to operate as investment intermediaries under the new legislation.

No agreement has yet been reached between the various supervisory - authorities - the IBA, the Department of Enterprise and Employment and the Central Bank regarding either the annual authorisation procedures or the ongoing checking. The IBA's normal compliance procedures, which relate mainly to the Insurance Act, are carried out each October. The association had planned to extend the check to cover members who came under the Investment Intermediaries Act.

As Taylor Asset Managers only applied for registration with the IBA in March, it was not required to furnish a solvency certificate at the time, but it would have had to do so before October. An IBA spokesman said the affairs of Taylor Asset Managers were in the hands of the liquidator and he refused to make any comment on the matter.

Although Mr Taylor has operated a series of financial services companies since the mid 1970s, Taylor Asset Managers only came into being two years ago. The company was incorporated as Cepo Investments on June 26th, 1992. Cepo had been set up to sell a banking software product but quickly became a dormant company. Mr Taylor changed Cepo's name to Taylor Asset Managers in July 1994, and then backed Taylor Investment Group and Taylor & Associates Financial Services into the new company.

However, from the early investigations in the Taylor affair it has become clear that Taylor Investment Group still existed, as fees and commissions due to Taylor Asset Management were paid into two offshore accounts operated by Taylor Investment Group up to the collapse of the firm.