Cyprus Investment Firms (CIF) regulated by CySEC are a problem for the security of the European financial markets. Everyone in the scene knows this – the other regulators and law enforcement agencies in the various EU countries. The CySEC CIFs work with illegal offshore mutations, fraudulent marketing campaigns, and target consumers and retail investors in the EU with bad practices. Now the UK watchdog FCA has banned CySEC-regulated Finteractive Ltd d/b/a FXVC from UK clients. After Brexit, FXVC was allowed to operate under the Temporary Permission Regime (TPR) with the CySEC license in the UK. This has now come to an end. Bravo, again, FCA.
Back in May 2020, the FCA banned several CySEC CIFs from the UK market. These were Hoch Capital Ltd d/b/a iTrader and tradeATF, Magnum FX (Cyprus) Ltd d/b/a ET-Finance, Rodeler Ltd d/b/a 24option, and F1Markets Ltd d/b/a Investous, StrattonMarkets, and EuroPrime. Also, the Italian Consob has already blocked CySEC CIFS for the Italian market. The Spanish CNMV has already issued a comprehensive warning against the bad practices of CySEC CIFs. It is an open secret that Cyprus is currently the center for money laundering and cybercrime in the EU.
The firm used pressure tactics, described by one customer as ‘relentless’, to encourage consumers to invest ever increasing sums of money. Some customers were even encouraged to declare they were professional investors despite not meeting the necessary criteria for such categorisation.
FCA announcement (link)
In recent weeks, we have outlined how several CySEC CIFs, such as EverFX, FXGlobe, LegacyFX, or PlusMarkets, are using offshore mutations to circumvent regulatory framework, financial and consumer protection laws in the EEA. And the list of those bad-acting CIFs goes on and on. CySEC knows this but does nothing about it. Cyprus is financially dependent on this cybercrime tourism and the revenue that the dozens of CIFs bring to the country.
