We repeat our review regarding the offshore broker PU Prime against which the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning. We were informed that the CySEC-regulated Pacific Union Group Ltd would not be part of this offshore broker scheme.
In April 2022, FinTelegram recently updated its review of PU Prime, an offshore broker regulated by the FSA Seychelles. We included the broker in our Red Compliance list. Despite lacking the necessary regulatory authorizations, this broker offers financial products to clients in the UK and EEA. On May 10, 2023, the UK regulator FCA issued a warning regarding PU Prime. Despite similar names, the CySEC-regulated Pacific Union Group Ltd said it would not be part of the offshore broker scheme.
The key data
| Trading name | PU PRIME PACIFIC UNION |
| Domains | https://puprime.com https://puprime.net https://puprime.online |
| Legal entities | Pacific Union (Seychelles) Limited (Seychelles) Pacific Union Group Pty Ltd (Australia) |
| Jurisdiction | Seychelles |
| Regulation | FSA Seychelles with license no. SD050 CySEC with license no. 342/17 |
| Related individual | James Kitheka Weiro Ma |
| Payment options | Bank transfer, credit cards e-wallets, crypto |
| Payment Processors | Commonwealth Bank of Australia TrustWorthy Pay, Perfect Money, FasaPay, AstroPay, SticPay |
| Warnings | FCA |
Short narrative
PU Prime is a very well-made broker and looks professional, except that no further details about the operators are given. In addition to the website, the broker also operates various social media channels to solicit and inform customers. The Pacific Union Group d/b/a PU Prime is an Australian venture with a strong presence in Asia.
The Pacific Union Group Ltd is a CySEC-regulated investment firm with the approved domain www.pacific-union.cy. However, this website is not available. We received notice that the CySEC-regulated entity is not part of the PU Prime scheme.
The broker addresses French clients with its own website (https://fr.puprime.net). In the last 3 months (Feb to April 2023), most of the over 511,000 PUprime.com website visitors came from France (22%), but the share of Italian visitors (7%) is also remarkable.
Pre-verification deposits
In our review on April 14, 2022, we registered as EU and UK residents without problems. Before completing the KYC/AML check and verifying our identity, we could have theoretically made transfers via SWIFT to Pacific Union Group Pty Ltd‘s bank account at Commonwealth Bank of Australia with no limit on the amount we could transfer. However, in our new review on May 11, 2023, it was no longer possible to open live accounts before completing the KYC procedure, and thus no pre-KYC deposits were possible.
Compliance Check
The UK regulator FCA warned against PU Prime on May 10, 2023, stating that the broker does not have permission to offer its financial products in the UK.
PU Prime holds a securities dealer license from the FSA Seychelles. However, it is also certain that this license does not authorize PU Prime to offer regulated financial products such as CFD in Europe, North America, or most other regulatory regimes. PU Prime is acting unauthorized and, therefore, illegal in these regimes. Theoretically, unlimited pre-verification deposits are not compliant with the regulatory frameworks of the FCA, ESMA, or other regimes.
Due to the regulatory warning and compliance issues, we have included PU Prime in our Red Compliance list.
Clients of offshore entities are not entitled to investor compensation schemes or other regulatory intervention measures. They are also not entitled to assistance from Financial Ombudsman institutions.
