Based on our years of experience, we estimate that 90% of all offshore brokers are scams. The remaining 10% are not set up to defraud clients but to circumvent existing regulations in Europe, North America, or Australia. In many cases like Moneta Markets or IC Markets, the brokers have regulated companies in the EU, UK, or Australia but use their offshore vehicles to circumvent the regulations systematically. Those working with offshore brokers are not eligible for investor compensation schemes in ESMA member states. Their money is not protected!
Most recently, we reported about offshore activities of two large groups:
- IC Markets: on the offshore broker Raw Trading Ltd, Seychelles, which operates within the FCA, CySEC, and ASIC regulated IC Markets group onboards clients in the UK, EU, and Australia in violation of regulatory requirements and financial laws.
- Vantage: The FCA- and ASIC-regulated Vantage group also operates with offshore onboarding. There, brokers VT Markets and Moneta Markets are operated through offshore entities Vantage Global Limited, Vanuatu, and Vantage International Group Ltd, Caymen Islands. These also acquire consumers in the UK, EU and Australia in violation of their respective regulatory regimes.
Neither Vantage Global Limited, regulated by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC), nor Raw Trading Ltd, regulated by the Financial Services Commission of Seychelles (FSCS), are authorized to offer their products in the UK, EU, or Australia. However, they do so illegally.
Clients of these offshore brokers are not eligible for Investor Compensation Schemes in the UK, EU, or Australia. Furthermore, there is no supervision, no monitoring of whether client funds are held in segregated accounts. Offshore regulators do not even check whether investments or trading actually take place through authorized exchanges or liquidity providers. And finally, clients are not entitled to the assistance of Financial Ombudsman Services.
No, offshore brokers like Moneta Markets, VT Markets, or IC Markets Global are not authorized or regulated outside their exotic offshore islands. Your money is not safe but rather far away.
