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The Cypriot CySEC is the weakest regulator in the EEA, right after or even before the Maltese MFSA. This is no secret, or is it? Other EEA regulators like CNMV, Consob, or the UK FCA are actually pissed off by the many CySEC investment firms (CIF) attacking clients in their regulatory regimes with fraudulent online marketing campaigns, offshore entities, and non-compliant methods. The FCA has already banned several CySEC CIFs from the UK market in the past. Today, it stopped BDSwiss Group. Better late than never, right?
BDSwiss Group is regulated by CySEC under license 199/13 and is allowed to operate with the approved domains eu.bdswiss.com, eu.swissmarkets.com, eu.investments.bdswiss.com, and eu.bdstrading.com. The FCA has banned all brands and members of the BDSwiss Group from operating in the UK.
The FCA says it has determined that BDSwiss Group acquired 99% of its UK customers through offshore entities, which had no authorization to provide regulated services in the UK. Bravo! Everyone on the scene knows that the CySEC CIFs systematically work with offshore entities to circumvent the EEA compliance rules.
This group was selling high-risk investments to UK investors in breach of our perimeter and the rules for CFDs we have put in place to protect retail investors.’Many investors were attracted to the firm via social media accounts.
Sarah Pritchard, Executive Director, Markets at the FCA
Upon stopping their activities in the UK by order of the FCA, victims were actually paid next to nothing. Then, CySEC may or may not eventually launch an investigation and give the company a rather paltry fine or receive payment as part of a settlement along with no acknowledgment of any violation at all. Welcome to Cyprus.
Stay tuned for a more detailed report on the BDSwiss Group case.
