When precisely BDSwiss lifted the new client registration blocking, we do not know. In our last review on June 16, 2022, the new client registration was still disabled, and we received a respective pop-up warning. FinTelegram has repeatedly drawn attention to BDSwiss‘ offshore onboarding process for EU and UK clients. In our review today, new client registration was possible again, whereas offshore onboarding for EU and UK residents was no longer possible. That’s good news!
Regulatory Enforcement And Legal Threats
In March 2022, the German BaFin issued a statement saying that the offshore broker BDS Markets has no permission to offer ist regulated services in Germany. In May 2022, 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.
FinTelegram has received threats of legal action from BDSwiss over reports of illegal offshore onboarding procedures. However, it turns out that the FinTelegram reports were 100% accurate.
Offshore Onboarding Terminated
In our review on August 18, 2022, as potential new customers of BDSwiss from the UK, we received a 404 error message when accessing the website connected with the domain www.bdswiss.com. This is in line with the FCA‘s ban on BDSwiss. As EU residents, we were directed to the CySEC regulated site with the domain https://eu.bdswiss.com when we re-registered. The website www.swissmarkets.com is offline.
Regulators’ investigations are conducted confidentially. Therefore, we cannot know whether CySEC‘s investigations led to BDSwiss terminating their illegal offshore onboarding procedures. We will see within the next few months whether there will be an announcement or a settlement from CySEC.
Share Information
If you have any information about BDSwiss, its operators and businesses, or any testimonials as a customer, please let us know via our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
