Category: Regulation

On 10th of April, a US-registered asset manager East West Global agreed to pay the National Futures Organization a $750,000 fine to settle allegations that it charged excessive fees from investors in its commodity pool.

The National Futures Association (NFA) is the self-regulatory organization for the U.S. derivatives industry, including on-exchange traded futures, retail off-exchange foreign currency (forex) and OTC derivatives (swaps). NFA is headquartered in Chicago and maintains an office in New York City. NFA does not operate any markets and is not a trade association.

According to the filing, the company breached fiduciary duty and failed to sufficiently reveal the high fees and poor overall performance of the pools which was material information.

The NFA launched its suit against East West Global on August 2018, alleging the commodity trading operator allowed to publish these disclosures although the documents were materially inaccurate and likely to deceive pool participants.

East West Advisors, LLC provides investment advisory services. The Company offers risk management, investment strategies, consulting, financial planning, and other financial services. East West Advisors serves clients in the United States.

Spain’s financial markets and services regulator CNMV issued a warning against WandaFx. According to the public warning notice, WandaFx, operated by Eper Holdings LTD., 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.

WandaFx provides Forex, Crypto and CFD’s solutions to institutional and private investors. The company is owned and operated by Eper Holdings LTD with registered number 24673 IBC, based in St.Vincent and the Grenadines and Bonvita Partners OÜ with registered number 14443635, based in Estonia. However, we didn't find any records of Bonvita Partners OÜ in the register of Estonian Financial Supervision Authority, which means the company is not regulated.

As to the offshore-based Eper Holdings LTD., we keep reminding that such 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. Also, the company claims to be registered by the Financial Commission. Even though the FinaCom is a well-respected organization, it is a self-regulatory organization which cannot guarantee the safety of the trading environment and does not regulate the daily operations of the company, therefore can’t provide necessary protection to the client.

Generally, we always advise traders to avoid dealing with unregulated forex brokers, as most of them are involved in investment scams. There are a number of properly licensed brokers to choose from, like the ones regulated by the FCA or the ASIC. 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 – ProTradeFX. 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.

ProTradeFX is a Forex and CFD broker that operates through the www.protradefx.com website. The company is owned and operated by Game Capital Ads Limited, based and registered in the St. Vincent and the Grenadines. As to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Financial Services Authority (FSA) registration, we keep reminding remind that FSA has announced that it does not issue any licenses for forex trading or brokerage nor does it regulate, monitor, supervise or license international companies, which engage in such activities.
In addition, there are two contact phone numbers provided (UK and Bahrain) and the website supports English and Arabic languages, which proves that the broker has been targeting traders from these countries. The company is not regulated to provide its financial services in EU or any other countries, which is already a valid reason to avoid trading with ProTradeFX.
When engaging with brokers that do not operate on the grounds of a valid license, issued from a trustworthy authority, traders are putting their investments at higher risk. 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.

Spain’s financial markets and services regulator CNMV has issued a warning against Dax300. According to the public warning notice, Dax300, operated by Brown Fox Limited, 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.

Dax300 is an offshore forex and CFDs broker that offers to trade on 52 currency pairs, 120 Global Indices, Gold, Oil, Silver & More. The broker is owned and operated by the Brown Fox Limited, a Marshall Island-based entity. However, there is no information about the company's actual location neither its contact details provided on the website.
Another red flag for those, who plan to invest with Dax300 is the negative reviews that can be found on the forums, etc. Traders state that the managers of the company refused to approve the withdrawal requests and were trying to make them invest more. Also, according to some reviews, broker's employees, while cold-calling, tell that they are based in London, UK. Although, we already know that such statements are false and Dax300 is not regulated by any authority and there is no regulatory body that monitors its activity to ensure it sticks to best practices.
We recommend to stay away from the unregulated brokers and pay more attention to the reliable and licensed ones. All the warnings from the regulators are meant to protect the public from the fraudulent unlawful financial activity.
You can read our review on this broker here.

In the recent regulatory statement, New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) (https://fma.govt.nz/) has reported against Managed Forex Hum Limited and warned the customers to not use the products and services offered by this company. The regulator is concerned about the deceptive statements posted by managed Forex Hub Limited on its website www.managedforexhub.com as the company made representations regarding the products and services registration on the Financial Service Providers Register, that the firm were offering, although the entities were provided from unauthorized groups. The main concern was specifically on the registration as a financial service provider and that the Managed Forex Hub belonged to a dispute resolution plan. These are the reasons for the FMA to consider the misleading moves of the mentioned company. The Managed Forex Hub also weren't able to provide to the FMA the explanations regarding the company's withholding the funds of its investors. This brokerage is not licensed to provide financial services in New Zealand and the regulator warns traders to be cautioned when dealing with it. New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority provides warnings and alerts when there's a suspicion for the investors to get in trouble and risk their funds. The list of the blacklisted firms or individuals includes those that are not licensed or authorized to provide financial services in New Zealand.

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has released its fourth statistical report on Authorised Financial Advisers (AFAs) in New Zealand. The requirement of the regulator is year-to-year submission of the annual information return from the financial advisors. The Report is relevant for AFAs and other members of the financial services industry.

The Report provides information on the profile of AFAs, the types of services provided by AFAs, the profile of the AFA's clients, how AFAs are paid, the types of KiwiSaver advice provided, the amount of insurance advice, and the other services provided by AFAs.

The data for the issued report was taken from the questionnaire to provide a snapshot of the sector for the period of 12 months ending June 2017. In order to enable the industry, media and the interested members of public to better cooperate and study the data, the report was published in Tableau.

The majority of AFAs can give personalised financial advice on all categories of financial products. It is important to differentiate AFAs from RFAs and QFEs. Registered Financial Advisers (RFAs) are not licensed or regulated by the FMA. RFAs can give both class and personalised advice on all financial products and non-investment financial products. As to the Qualifying Financial Entity (QFEs) advisers, they do not need to register individually. The y are allowed to give personalised advice only about products provided by the financial services firm that employs them. This firm is responsible for the given advice.Around one third of AFAs work for QFEs.

The Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), which also serves as a financial services supervisor, issued a warning against Trade Capital. According to CBI’s official notice, this forex and CFD broker has been offering financial services and/or investment advice to the Irish investors without being authorised.
The Central Bank of Ireland (Irish: Banc Ceannais na hÉireann) is Ireland's central bank, and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It is Ireland's financial services regulator for most categories of financial firms. The Central Bank of Ireland serves the public interest by safeguarding monetary and financial stability and by working to ensure that the financial system operates in the best interests of consumers and the wider economy.
The CBI also keeps a register of regulated companies and anyone can check whether a certain forex broker is licensed in the country or not. Besides, the CBI regularly publishes official warnings of unregulated companies that target local investors.

Trade Capital is a Forex and CFDs broker that operates through the website www.tradecapital.com. The company is owned and managed by Trade Capital Investments LLC. that claims to be based in Geneve, Switzerland. However, there is no information about this broker on the website of the Swiss regulator FINMA. Moreover, the regulator has issued a warning against Trade Capital in September this year.
The website supports English, German, Italian and Spanish languages and provides contact number with British, Swiss and German phone codes. We suppose the broker is targeting residents of these countries and doing it without authorization. There are, also, lots of negative reviews from those who have already invested with Trade Capital.
Considering all the mentioned facts, Trade Capital cannot be trusted and might be one more fraud company. Instead, we recommend investing only with the brokers regulated with well-known reliable authorities, such as the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom.
You can read our review on this broker here.