As part of our compliance checks, we have also reviewed DecodeFX in the last few days. This offshore broker is registered with the Vanuatu FSC (VFSC) as a Financial Dealer and part of the ASIC-regulated Australian Decode Group. We found that DecodeFX also onboarded clients in EEA and other regulatory regimes without the required regulatory permission. As a result, we have placed DecodeFX on our Orange Compliance List. Here is our review.
Key Data
| Trading name | DecodeFX |
| Related scheme | part of the Australien Decode Group |
| Business activity | Multi-asset brokerage platform |
| Domains | https://decodefx.com https://www.decodefs.com https://decode-group.com https://crypto.decodeex.com |
| Social media | not disclosed |
| Legal entity | Decode Global Limited, Vanuatu |
| Related legal entities | Decode Funding Ltd, Australia Decode FS Fund Pty Ltd, Australia |
| Contact data | +678 23043 [email protected] |
| Jurisdiction | Australia Vanuatu |
| Authorization | VFSC Financial Dealer for Decode Global Limited ASIC for Decode Funding Ltd |
| Membership | Financial Markets Association (FMA) Vanuatu |
| Related individuals | not disclosed |
| Leverage | up to 1:500 |
| Payment options | Bank transfer, debit/credit card, crypto |
| Payment processors | CBA and other Asian banks DragonPay, AliPay |
| Trustpilot | One review |
| Compliance rating | Orange |
Short Narrative
Decode Global Limited d/b/a DecodeFX obtained a financial dealer license from the VFSC in April 2023.
The broker is part of the Australian financial group Decode Group, an ASIC-regulated wealth manager in Australia. The Decode Group has offices all over Asia. Decode is also currently working on a crypto exchange, although the website is still under construction.
DecodeFX is focused on the Asian region, from where almost all of the website’s visitors come. The number of visitors to the website is limited. Similarweb said fewer than 10,000 people visited the website in June 2023. Of these, more than 70% came from the Philippines, where the broker does not have a license.
Compliance Check
DecodeFX is registered with the VFSC in Vanuatu as a Financial Dealer and does not have regulatory permissions in other jurisdictions. However, its parent company Decode Global is registered with the ASIC in Australia.
In our compliance check, we have registered as an EEA resident with the offshore mutation of DecodeFX without any problems. This gave us access to maximum leverage of 1:500. However, a maximum of 1:30 is allowed for retail traders in the EEA and most other Western and Asian regulatory regimes. DecodeFX has no regulatory permission in any other jurisdiction except Vanuatu.
Payment options are bank deposit, credit/debit card, e-wallet, and crypto. The broker does require that all necessary documents for ID determination and address confirmation are uploaded before admission to trading is given. However, we only uploaded some nonsensical documents and were immediately approved. This would have theoretically allowed us to make unlimited pre-KYC deposits. In short, the KYC does not work at all with DecodeFX.
Because the VFSC-regulated broker allows onboarding from various jurisdictions (including EEA regulatory regimes) without the required permission and the fact that the KYC is not properly working, we put DecodeFX on our Orange Compliance list. In this regard, we would like to point out that the clients of Offshore Mutation are not entitled to Investor Compensation Schemes or Financial Ombudsman support.
Share Information
We recommend staying away from this unregulated offshore broker scheme. If you have any information about the scam operators or supporting partners, we would be happy if you share it with us.
