Category: Regulation

One of the latest warnings of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority was issued against Littinvest broker (https://www.littinvest.com/). This company has been targeting UK customers and offering financial products without authorization. The FCA always cautioned traders and investors against dealing with companies that have no license and are not authorized.

Littinvest is unauthorized Forex broker that was established in April 2017. It officially owned by Media Guru Group Ltd. based in Sofia, Bulgaria. The company offers trading CFDs, Currency Pairs, Bitcoin, Individual Stocks, Commodities and Market Indexes.

The FCA pointed out that the broker was flagged for providing trading options for unlicensed foreign exchange products and CFDs. Also the International Financial Services Commission of Belize has issued a warning against this broker.

The Financial Conduct Authority has been warning the public about the growing number of the unregulated companies that try to reach out UK customers. Their recent reports show that investors have lost huge amounts to fraudulent brokers.

The UK's FCA is one of the most reputable regulators, which applies tough standards and rules to the brokers registered with it. The two most important rules are the security of the funds and the finance compensation scheme. The regulator operates as an insurance company, protecting clients in case of the bankruptcy of the broker.

In one of its latest posts, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority warns public about GCC Investing brokerage firm. This company has been providing financial products and services to UK clients without FCA's authorization. As all the firms offering or promoting financial services in the UK have to be authorized, the GCC Investing is now blacklisted and considered to be a scam. Forex and CFD broker GCC Investing operates on the website www.gccinvesting.com and based in Sofia, Bulgaria. GCC offers a variety of assets to trading including; Forex pairs, Global Market Indexes, Shares, Oil, Gold, and Silver. Although it is owned by GreenRiver OU in Tallinn, Estonia, but payment processing is done by Mercure Services Ltd, which is based in St Vincent & Grenadines. St Vincent & Grenadines doesn't have the regulation of forex activity under its jurisdiction. The conclusion would be that the firm cannot be trusted and may be a scam. If you try searching the information about the mentioned broker, the first thing you will see is loads of negative reviews and angry customers who are still trying to get their money back without results or those who just invested and receiving phone calls encouraging them to invest more. When dealing with unauthorized brokers, investors and traders put their funds at higher risk. We strongly advise to choose and deal only with regulated forex brokers, by trusted governmental agencies, such as UK's FCA, Australia's ASIC, Cyprus' CySec.

One more warning from UK's Financial Conduct Authority was issued recently. It concerns the forex firm Broker XP. According to the regulator, this broker has been providing financial products and services in the country without being authorized.

The company operates on the website www.brokerxp.com and offers trading in many currency pairs and multiple CFDs. There is quite confusing information about the operating address on the website, which is in Hungary, Budapest, when the contact phone number is British. Broker XP is owned by two companies: M&A Mergers and Acquisitions Consultancy LP, located in Edinburgh, Scotland and Aviant Marketing Limited, incorporated on Marshall Islands. Most of the companies which have an offshore regulation turn out to be fraudulent, as getting the license cost much more cheaper and the requirements are not that strict. Many of such companies are outright scams, and even if they are not, their clients have no protection whatsoever if something goes wrong. Also the internet search gives the numerous negative reviews about the broker firm. Those who invested are desperately trying to get their money back, and unable to even reach the representatives of the company. All brokers licensed by UK’s Financial Conduct Authority are under the umbrella of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which can pay up to £50,000 per client. Unlike FCA-licensed brokers, unregulated ones are not obliged to keep their clients’ money in segregated accounts. You can read our review on this broker here.

According to the latest warning of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the CFD and forex broker SolidCFD was blacklisted as it is not licensed or authorised by the regulator, although was targeting the UK customers.

SolidCFD is the CFD and forex broker owned by LOK marketing Ltd., and its website provides two addresses of the offices, in Cyprus and in London. Although, the terms and conditions  of the company states that the address of the LOK marketing Ltd. is in Vanuatu. Usually the companies that operate in the offshore areas (such as Republic of Vanuatu) are not licensed nor regulated and considered to be frauds.

There are numerous negative reviews on the different website and forums about the mentioned above broker. Those who invested their money report that they are unable to take the money back and the employees of the company simply ignore all their withdrawal requests.

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.

According to the latest warning of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Forex and CFD broker CFDs100 was blacklisted as it is not licensed or authorized by the regulator, although was targeting the UK customers.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The FCA regulates financial firms providing services to consumers and maintains the integrity of the financial markets in the United Kingdom.

The broker CFDs100 operates through the website www.cfds100.com and offers a solid choice of currency pairs, as well as various CFDs - on commodities, indices, a few specific stocks, and Bitcoin. The company is owned and operated by TRSystem, a company registered and located in Estonia, Tallin. Neither CFDs100 nor TRSystem are regulated to provide their services in Estonia. In addition, the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority has issued a warning against the company stating that "TRSystem OÜ does not hold an active license for the provision of investment services in Estonia and therefore TRSystem OÜ is not authorized to provide investment services in Estonia."
As to the targeted countries, most probably those are European German-speaking countries as the website supports English and German and they also provide the contact phone numbers with British and Austrian country codes.
To sum up, it is better to stay away from CFDs100, a broker that has two warnings in its collection and also a quite big number of the negative review from the traders who was scammed by this firm. We recommend selecting among brokers licensed by the respective authorities in the UK, or Australia for example. For instance, a broker registered with the UK’s FCA can’t simply take investor’s money and disappear. 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 two forex brokers FortFS and Merit Forex. According to the public warning notice, these entities are 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.

Are these brokers legit? 

FortFS offers trading on Forex and other international financial markets. Fort Financial Services LTD is incorporated in St. Vincent & the Grenadines as an International Business Company. Those brokers registered offshore are not considered as reliable ones, because they are basically are not overseen by any authority. Also, the broker claims to have offices in Malaysia and Indonesia, however, it is not regulated in these countries. 

Merit Forex serves the investors worldwide to trade online Forex, CFD and many other financial instruments. Merit Forex is brand owned by Merit Financial Services Ltd a company incorporated in Vanuatu. The broker also provides regulation info and its VFSC license.

From our source, it costs €24,000 per year to become a member. However, and there is no handbook or guidelines for brokers to run their business. Therefore, there is zero protection for traders. We have a detailed article explaining the risk of trading with brokers from Vanuatu.

Generally, we always advise traders to avoid dealing with unregulated offshore forex brokers, as they may be involved in investment scams. There are a number of properly Regulated Brokers to choose from on our website.

You can share your FortFS and Merit Forex experience with us by commenting on this post.  

New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has issued a warning against the Forex broker Oracle-FX. The regulator has been receiving reports that representatives of Oracle-FX are cold calling New Zealand Residents. Oracle-FX is not registered to provide financial services in New Zealand. The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) is the New Zealand government agency responsible for financial regulation. It is responsible for regulating all financial market participants, exchanges and the setting and enforcing of financial regulations. The Oracle-FX operates on the website http://tg.oracle-fx.com and is based in Jinjiang City, China. Also the information on the website states that the broker is supervised by FSP (548588) and NFA (0505926) and has headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand, however the information turned out to be false. The company is owned by Oracle Finance International INC., which registered on British Virgin Islands. Although, it is not registered in New Zealand to provide financial services. There are too many confusing things, including locations, where the broker is not regulated and the licenses is doesn't actually have and the offshore regulation, which usually means that the broker cannot be trusted as it is fast and easy to get this kind of license. Generally, it is highly recommended to avoid dealing with unregulated brokers or, worse still, with ones making false claims like Oracle-FX. There are numerous properly licensed brokers, like the ones by FCA or the Australian Securities and Investment Commission to choose from. You can read our review on this broker here.