Austria’s financial markets and services regulator FMA has warned that Forex broker BECFD is not licensed to carry out banking operations in the country. In essence, this means the company cannot operate in Austria. 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. BECFD offers Forex and CFD trading options and operates through the website www.becfd.com. The company is owned and operated by BECFD Limited 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. Although the location of the BECFD is not provided on the website, it mentions different contact numbers in the United Kingdom and Austria. The company is not licensed in any of these countries, and there is no regulatory body that monitors its activity to ensure it sticks to best practices. 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 review on this broker here.

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) of France, the government agency responsible for financial regulation, have issued warnings against Capital TradeFX and Lockwood Investments brokers. The regulator states the brokers offer investments in the unregulated foreign exchange (Forex) market in France without being authorised to do so.

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is the stock market regulator in France. The AMF is an independent public body that is responsible for safeguarding investments in financial instruments and in all other savings and investment as well as maintaining orderly financial markets.

Capital TradeFX claims to be an international Forex broker, operated by Capital TradeFX Ltd. which is based in St. Vincent and the Grenadine. The broker itself mentions Hong Kong registration, however, it is not authorized by its local Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

We keep reminding that 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.

As to the Lockwood Investments, it is also an offshore broker based in the Marshall Islands. The company seems to be very shady as it was previously operated by the infamous Solutions CM blacklisted by several regulators. In addition, both brokers have gotten into the warning list of the Spanish regulator CNMV. 

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 fraudulent unlawful financial activity. 

You can share your Capital TradeFX and Lockwood Investments trading experience with us by commenting on this post.  

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (‘CySEC’) officially warned investors that Pari Fx Trade and FX PREMIUM are not licensed to provide investment services in the country. According to the regulator, brokerages and their websites are not operated by Cypriot Investment Firms and not authorized to provide investment services and activities in the country.

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, known as CySEC, is the financial regulatory agency of Cyprus. As an EU member state, CySEC’s financial regulations and operations comply with the European MiFID financial harmonization law. A significant number of overseas retail forex brokers have obtained registration from CySEC.

Pari Fx Trade is an offshore company, registered in Seychelles. The broker claims to be licensed by the U.S. National Futures Association NFA, the Financial Services Commission and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). However, the CySEC license actually belongs to another CySEC-regulated firm BDSwiss. All the regulatory information on the Pari Fx Trade's website is false.

As to the FX PREMIUM, this broker also claims to be regulated in the UK, Cyprus, France, and Germany. However, all the licenses belong to another CySEC-regulated company, not associated with FX PREMIUM.

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 unregulated 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 the full Pari Fx Trade and FX PREMIUM reviews 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 – PBN Invest. 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.

PBN Invest is a forex and CFD broker that operates on the website www.pbninvest.com. The company is offering its clients a variety of currency pairs, including some indices, energy commodities, futures, shares, precious metals like gold and silver, as well as crypto CFDs. There are two entities behind this brand - Capital Tech Ltd - an offshore company based in the Marshall Islands and Pbox Ltd. based in Bulgaria. These two companies come with the regulation numbers on the website, although, there are no records of them being regulated by the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission.
In addition, there is an Austrian contact phone number provided and the website supports English, German and Italian languages, which proves that the broker has been targeting traders from these countries. 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 PBN 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.

The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin) has ordered XtraderFX to cease offering cross-border investment advice and proprietary trading to German investors. According to the official warning, the company has been calling German customers from German and British phone numbers and has been offering them CFDs on cryptocurrencies, currencies, commodities, indices and equities.

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (German: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht) better known by its abbreviation BaFin is the financial regulatory authority for Germany. The main task of BaFin is the supervision of banks, insurance companies and the trading of securities and ensure the viability, integrity and stability of the German financial system.

XtraderFX is a broker that operates through several trading platforms (www.xtrader-fx.com, www.xtraderfx-com, www.xtraderfx.net). The company is owned and operated by GPAY Ltd., and claims to be located and registered in the UK. However, the broker is not regulated in the UK by its Financial Conduct Authority. Moreover, XtraderFX has been banned by the British regulator in July 2018.

The negative comments about the XtraderFX on the net also reveal that those who invested are having hard times with withdrawing their money, while the company representatives are cold calling them promising high returns.

Considering all the above, we would not recommend you investing with XtraderFX. Instead, we advise our readers to avoid dealing with unregulated entities and choose among the reliable and regulated ones. There is a number of properly licensed firms, such as UK brokers and German brokers. You can read our review on this broker here.