The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission has once again stepped up its fight against unauthorized brokers.
The Cypriot regulator today published a warning against a slew of unlicensed providers, whose domains were just blacklisted for facilitating trading in FX and cryptocurrencies without being authorized to do so in the country.
CySEC added that some of these brands are misleadingly claiming affiliation other brokers that are already regulated in Cyprus and hold its CIF License. The watchdog has therefore blacklisted the following domains:
- 21stfinance.net
- 21stfinance.com
- 21stfinance.co
- bitbulls-market.com
- financewiseint.com
- eurotradeforex.com
CySEC also sounded alarm bells after it spotted a fraudulent scheme imitating brand of FX broker EuropeFX. This company has had its CIF authorisation withdrawn earlier this week based on multiple violations of the local investment laws
As CySEC’s attitude of adopting more stringent licensing guidelines and operating regulations becomes ever clearer, certain aspects of the rules and operations start to come into sharper focus.
CySEC warns of ‘gamification’ and “finfluencers”
CySEC has recently released retail investment behaviour research showing what it views as a concerning rise in unregulated, volatile investment products.
The research also showed that too few spend enough time researching the products they plan to invest in or the firm selling them, raising concerns that investors did not understand the relevant risks. Of the retail crowd, a quarter revealed that they spent 6-7 days researching a particular product, 7% said they did less than 30 minutes due diligence or none at all before committing their money to a product.
Meanwhile, only 30% of all respondents looked up their broker on the website of the country’s regulator to check it was licensed. While 15% didn’t do any checks at all, more than half (51%) said they looked at company reviews or the firm’s own website.
With many people afraid of missing out on the chance to make easy money, Cypriot regulators also launched a campaign to educate its citizens on the potential risks involved when it comes to online trading.
The country’s financial regulatory body was behind the campaign, which warns of using colorful apps that make trading seem empowering instead of intimidating.
