Regulators Crack Down On Illegal Binary Options Brokers
The financial regulator in Italy has declared that the binary options trading firm called City Equities and LiveTrader are operating without a license in Italy. Previously, Consob, which is what the Italian financial regulatory body is called, has added a number of fraud finance companies to its blacklist.
Recently, it issued a warning against City Equities and LiveTrader, which also operates as NTD Invest Corp Limited. Both are binary options brokers. According to Consob, the companies are offering financial services to residents of Italy without first obtaining the required license.
City Equities, which can be accessed at www.cteqs.com, states that it is registered in UK. But, according to a check by LeapRate, the broker has not been licensed by UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). To make matters worse, the UK regulator has found it to be a clone of an existing business that operates under an FCA license.
LiveTrader, which is accessible at www.livetrader.eu, also claims to be registered in the UK, but the FCA says that it knows nothing about the company. The Italian Consob is a strict regulator, especially with issues related to binary options trading. While other EU regulators remain content with just issuing a public warning, Consob takes specific steps against unlicensed financial companies. It may be recalled that the Consob moved court in 2013 to prevent its residents from accessing several online binary options brokers.
France has taken a similar step against unlicensed financial companies that offer binary options services to its residents. The latest French list of unauthorized websites now contains 223 entries, which is 34 more from the previous list.
The Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), the French financial regulator, is one of the fiercest watchdogs of the finance industry in the world. It does not hesitate to take ruthless steps against unlicensed companies that offer binary options services to its residents. This march, the AMF’s blacklist had only 189 websites of binary options brokers, but today, the list contains 223 websites. These websites are operated by companies that haven’t obtained a license to do so in France. The French regulator has noted that most of these illegal companies are located in foreign countries and offer customer care services in French to attract local investors.
The AMF has urged its investors to exercise caution while choosing a binary options broker and has warned them that binary options trading is very risky and could lead to huge financial losses.
