Italy’s financial markets and services regulator CONSOB (Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa) has issued a warning that the offshore forex broker Axe Invest is not licensed to provide services in Italy. 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. The broker operates on the website axeinvest.com and offers forex and CFD trading. The brokerage Axe Invest is owned and operated by the Madar Partners LTD– an offshore company registered on the Marshall Islands. Offshore zones like those islands are famous for their lax tax and legal regimes. They are basically not licensed, nor supervised by any authority. Judging by the language options, the broker is mainly targeting Italian- and Spanish-, German-speaking clients. Also, the phone numbers provided on the website have Swiss and British country codes, although the company might be located offshore. The company is not regulated to provide its financial services in any of the EU countries, which is already a valid reason to avoid trading with Axe Invest. 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.