Category: Regulation

Canadian OSC warns the public against Forex broker Bristol Consulting FX. The company targets Canadian investors. The warning comes as it is not registered in Ontario to solicit investments or provide advice on investing in, buying or selling Forex assets. The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is a regulatory agency which administers and enforces securities legislation in the Canadian province of Ontario. OSC protects investors from unfair, improper and fraudulent practices, fosters fair and efficient capital markets and maintains public and investor confidence in the integrity of those markets. Bristol Consulting FX operates on the website www.bristolconsultingfx.com  and offers Forex trading. It claims to be regulated in Panama by the address Tower Financial Centre, Calle 50, Panama, Panama. Turned out that the company is blacklisted not only by the Canadian regulator for not having the proper license but also by the Securities Market of the Republic of Panama. The warning from Panama authority was issued a few weeks earlier. It seems that Bristol Consulting FX doesn't have a license at all, which means that it is better not to deal with this company. The Ontario regulator calls for caution with all entities which aren’t registered to trade or advise in Canada. With that in mind, some of the top-tier, globally renowned brokers are based in the UK and are overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority. It is recommended to first check the lists of the regulated trustworthy brokers before making any investments.   You can read our review on this broker here.

The Financial Markets Authority of New Zealand (FMA) has issued a warning against ZonggangCaifu, an unauthorized company offering Forex and CFD trading. The regulator states that the broker is not registered, licensed, or regulated in New Zealand as claimed on its websites.
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) plays a critical role in regulating capital markets and financial services in New Zealand. It is the New Zealand government agency responsible for enforcing securities, financial reporting, and company law as they apply to financial services and securities markets.

According to the official notice, the financial service provider registration numbers of FSP1782, FSP1762, FSP488226 and FSP536586 displayed on ZonggangCaifu’s websites belong to KVB Kunlun group of companies. KVB Kunlun is NOT affiliated with ZonggangCaifu and its websites. ZonggangCaifu could be involved in a scam.
ZonggangCaifu is owned by Zongangguoxin Group Limited and operates through the website www.zgangfx.com. The company claims to have offices in Hong Kong, the UK and the USA. It also claims to be licensed by Australian Securities & Investment Commission, Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, China Banking Regulatory Commission and New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority. However, it actually has no licenses with this regulators and even one more warning from SFC in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has listed www.zongforex.com on their alert list as “suspicious website”. Link to the SFC’s alert can be found here.
Considering all these facts we cannot recommend you to invest with ZonggangCaifu. It is much safer to trade with regulated entities overseen by reputable authorities such as FCA in the UK or ASIC in Australia.
You can read our review on this broker here.

Italy’s financial markets and services provider regulator CONSOB (Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa) has updated its list of forex brokers who are not licensed to operate in Italy with one new addition – RichmondFG. This broker has been offering investment services and activities to the Italian public without being authorized in the country.

Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB; Italian Companies and Exchange Commission) is the government authority of Italy responsible for regulating the Italian securities market. This includes the regulation of the Italian stock exchange, the Borsa Italiana.

RichmondFG is a broker that offers its clients to trade over 800 high-liquidity assets. Stocks, Commodities, Indices, Currencies and much more. The company is owned and operated by Elit Property Vision LTD with the registered address in Sofia, Bulgaria. However, the company is not regulated by the local Financial Supervision Commission.

We have also found out that previously RichmondFG claimed to be Terraquest Media Ltd., based in Bulgaria as well, but neither of the mentioned companies is regulated. Moreover, Terraquest Media Ltd. and RichmondFG have been banned by German BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority). According to the official notice, the regulator has been receiving concerns from German traders regarding the lost money with RichmondFG. The notice also states that Richmong is not licensed nor regulated.

We recommend selecting among brokers licensed by the respective authorities in the UK, or Germany, for example. They follow multiple reporting procedures and have to keep client funds segregated from the company’s. You can read our review on this broker here.

Spain’s financial markets and services regulator CNMV has issued a warning against 4xFX. According to the public warning notice, 4xFX, operated by GRF EUROPE OÜ, is not authorized to provide investment services or investment advice and auxiliary services, including foreign currency transactions in Spain.

The National Securities Market Commission (often abbreviated as CNMV) is the Spanish government agency responsible for the financial regulation of the securities markets in Spain. It is an independent agency that falls under the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness. The regulator maintains a register with investment companies that are authorized to operate in Spain.

The broker 4xFX offers its clients trading with Indices, Commodities, Forex, Stocks and Cryptocurrencies. The firm is owned and operated by GRF EUROPE OÜ, based in Estonia. However, we didn't find any records of the broker to be regulated by the local Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority or any other regulator.

Moreover, 4xFX was already blacklisted by several regulators, including Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). It should definitely be a red flag, as investing with the company that has gotten into warning lists of three regulators doesn't put much hope.

The website supports English, German and Spanish languages, as well as provides contact numbers with British, German and Estonian phone codes. It usually means the broker has been targeting people from those countries and most of the times without being authorized.

In order to operate legally, investment firms need a license by the local relevant authorities or the authorities of any other EU member state. We strongly advise traders to select among brokerages authorized by reputable regulators, such as EU ones (FCA, CySEC) or Australia’s ASIC. You can read our review on this broker here.

The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) warns the public against the activities of Swiss Investment Fx a company that offers investments without complying with Austrian financial legislation. According to the official statement, Swiss Investment Fx (Swiss Investment Corporation LTD.) is not entitled to carry out banking transactions in Austria that require a license.

The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) is an independent, autonomous and integrated authority for the Austrian financial market. The Austrian FMA is responsible for: contributing to the stability of Austria as a financial market; reinforcing confidence in the ability of the Austrian financial market to function; protecting investors, creditors and consumers.

Swiss Investment Fx is a broker that offers trading on Crypto, Currencies, Commodities and CFD’s assets. The company is owned and operated by Swiss Investment Corporation LTD., registered in the Marshall Islands, which means it is an offshore entity and there is a high risk for the customers of losing their investments when dealing with this firm.

The company doesn’t disclose any information about its regulation as well as the contact details. The website supports English, Italian, Spanish and German languages, which means the broker has been targeting residents of these countries. In addition, numerous negative reviews from the scammed clients only prove that Swiss Investment Fx cannot be trusted.

The first thing the potential investor should do when he is choosing a trading company is to determine if it is a legitimate broker or a scam broker. It is very easy to do. You just need to check if the broker is licensed by CySec in Cyprus, or it is under the regulation of the MIFId in the European Union (EU), or it is registered with the UK’s FCA or Australian ASIC. You can read our full review on this broker here.

The Switzerland financial markets and service providers regulator FINMA has warned of the unregulated forex broker HandelFX. According to the official notice, this entity may be carrying out unauthorized services and is not supervised by FINMA.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is the Swiss government institution responsible for financial regulation. The regulator supervises the banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges, and securities dealers, as well as other financial intermediaries in Switzerland. FINMA keeps a close eye on the unregulated brokers and usually warns in a timely manner of those who make false claims of Swiss regulation or location but are not Swiss-regulated.

Is HandelFX a scam or legit broker?

Handelfx claims to be a top online Forex broker with many years of experience in the market. The broker is owned and operated by Handelfx LTD and registered in Marshall Island. 

As we already know, offshore registration usually doesn’t guarantee the safety of funds and clients’ protection, especially in the Marshall Islands, where the local authority doesn’t regulate forex businesses. 

Handelfx claims to be located in Zurich, Switzerland. However, the company is not regulated by the Swiss authorities. In fact, it was banned in Switzerland. 

Considering all the facts mentioned above, we would not recommend trading with TaureneFX or any other unregulated offshore brokers. You may also let us know about your trading experience with HandelFX by commenting on this post. 

Italy's financial markets and services provider regulator CONSOB (Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa) has updated its list of forex and cryptocurrencies brokers who are not licensed to operate in Italy with one new addition - Bitex360 broker. This broker has been offering investment services and activities to the Italian public without being authorized in the country. Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB; Italian Companies and Exchange Commission) is the government authority of Italy responsible for regulating the Italian securities market. This includes the regulation of the Italian stock exchange, the Borsa Italiana.

Bitex360 operates on the website bitex360.com and offers forex and cryptocurrencies trading. The brokerage Bitex360, owned by Km Media Ltd. - an offshore company registered on the Marshall Islands. It claims to have an office in the United Kingdom as the phone number (which is the only contact info on the website) has UK's country code. Although the company is obviously not registered with UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The Marshall Islands is the preferred location for unregulated forex brokers and there is always a high risk of losing the investments with such companies. Either way, it is better to avoid dealing with offshore brokerages and choose properly regulated and reliable brokers. A good example for such are the ones supervised by the FCA or ASIC. You can read our review on this broker here.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has informed the public that it has canceled the Australian Financial Services (AFS) license of Melbourne based retail OTC derivative issuer, Berndale Capital Securities Pty Ltd’s (Berndale). Berndale Capital is an Australia’s Forex Broker that offers to trade with currency pairs, stock exchange indices, precious metals, and cryptocurrency. You can read our review on this broker here.

ASIC has also banned Stavro D’Amore, a former director of Berndale. It turned out that D'Amore was involved in contraventions of financial services laws by Berndale and is not adequately trained, or is not competent, to provide financial services.
The broker failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that its representative complied with financial services laws, to provide financial services efficiently, honestly and fairly, to comply with the client money reporting requirements and lodge annual financial statements, and audit reports.
As a rule, all Australian Financial Services (AFS) license holders must ensure that they comply with their reporting, competence and resourcing obligations. Obviously, Berndale Capital has failed to follow the requirements of the regulator and wasn't able to control the representatives who probably were providing unlicensed financial services and weren't properly monitored.
In order to minimize the impact of the cancellation on past and current clients of Berndale and for them to be able to finalize the existing client trading accounts, the regulator will not be canceling the license until 20 December 2018.

Spain's financial markets regulator, CNMV, has warned of Forex broker Banc De Monarch. According to the official notice on CNMV’s website, this entity is not registered in the corresponding registry of the commission and, therefore, are not authorized to provide investment services. The National Securities Market Commission (often abbreviated as CNMV) is the Spanish government agency responsible for the financial regulation of the securities markets in Spain. It is an independent agency that falls under the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness. Banc De Monarch is an offshore Forex and CFD broker that operates on the website www.bancdm.io. The company is owned and operated by the Takeda Partners LTD., based in the Marshall Islands. Offshore zones are famous for their loose legal regimes, tax free and low-cost licenses. They are basically not licensed, nor supervised by any authority. Judging by the language options, the broker is mainly targeting Spanish-, Italian-, German-, Russian- and Arabic-speaking clients. Also, the address and contact phone number on the website is form the UK, although the company is not regulated to provide its financial services in the UK or any other country, which is already a valid reason to avoid trading with Banc De Monarch. In addition, there more than enough negative reviews about this broker in the net. People state that they cannot get their money back and the company refuses to provide any kind of help. It is better to avoid dealing with offshore brokerages and choose properly regulated and reliable brokers. A good example of such are the ones supervised by the FCA or ASIC. You can read our review on this broker here.