FSMA warns of risk of several players’ “improper conduct” in Belgium

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (“the FSMA”) launched a warning yesterday (Thursday) against the activities of several Belgian players “acting improperly” in the market. These are in the binary options, Forex products and CFDs (contracts for difference) sectors.

Since August 18th, 2016, no investment company (whether or not approved) is authorised to actively trade binary options in Belgium, using a system of electronic negotiation.

The FSMA stresses, in a communiqué, that it is the same for derivatives. This particularly applies to derivatives traded on the Forex and CFDs. The same applies to derivatives negotiated through an electronic negotiation system, over a duration of under an hour and/or directly or indirectly including a leverage effect.

The FSMA adds, moreover, that any company wishing to offer such products must have authorisation to operate as an investment firm. It says that the players called into question here “are not respecting these prohibitions.”

It goes on, "In the vast majority of cases, this is investment fraud. The investors are simply not recovering the sums they have invested.”

Companies affected by this warning are Aaoption/CFDStocks/Pacific Sunrise UK Ltd, Benedict Morris/BMBOption/Log Trading Capital Ltd and BigOption/Wirestech Limited.

Also under fire is Binarynvest; Brevan Invest/Kasuar Ventures Ltd, Capital Epargne; CFDStocks/Pacific Sunrise UK Ltd, City Bank CFD, Comex Partners, Edgedale Finance/Gold Horizen Ltd and Finances Capital.

A further tranche includes Financial Futures Ltd (cloned firm)/Digifirst Hungary Kft, FMTrader/Terapad Services Ltd/FM Marketing Ltd, Ivoryoption/Arya Group Ltd/Arianus Marketing Ltd, London Global Markets, Markets Central Investment, OptionXchange/Globe & co Ltd/Sterling Consultancy Options (SC-Options) and Owpremium.

The last tranche is Swiss Capital Invest (Swiss Capitalinvest/Swiss-CapitalInvest)/Atlasreference Unipessoal LDA.


The Brussels Times


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