Many scam brokers try to present themselves as regulated. For this purpose, they use fake regulators, which are a good business in themselves. Against the payment of a membership fee, the scam brokers are then allowed to call themselves regulated by this organization. Fake regulators are a good business model. Recently we have noticed two new fake regulators, International Regulatory Markets Association (IRMA) and European Regulatory and Supervisory Investment Commission (ERSIC). We have added them to our list.
Fake Regulators List
| International Regulatory Markets Association | IRMA | https://www.irma-gov.com |
| European Regulatory and Supervisory Investment Commission | ERSIC | https://www.ersic.org |
| International Financial Market Regulation Center | IFMRC | https://ifmrc.org/ |
| Global Financial Authority | GFA | https://globalfinauthority.com/ |
| Swiss Financial Securities | SFINS | https://sfins.ch/ |
| Markets Financial Authority | MFA | https://www.mfa.org.uk/ |
| Financial Services Monitoring Authority | FSMA | https://www.fsma.org.uk |
Not A Regulator
We do not consider The Finance Commission to be a fake regulator. The organization is managed by Nikolai Isayev, an American of Ukrainian descent, through Finacom PLC Ltd, Hong Kong. It bills itself as an independent External Dispute Resolution (EDR) organization. Forex, CFD, and crypto brokers pay a membership fee. In return, their clients can submit complaints to the Commission to be investigated and judged by a committee of independent experts known as the Dispute Resolution Committee. The Commission provides responses and judgments on complaints based on the evidence provided by the parties. Some of the members are not regulated by any recognized state authority, while others include large Forex brands with licenses in different jurisdictions.
| The Financial Commission | EDR | https://financialcommission.org |
Financial Commission member brokers must adhere to strict Rules and Guidelines regarding the dispute resolution procedures and are required to compensate traders when a complaint is ruled in the client’s favor. For situations where a broker refuses to honor a judgment in favor of their client, a Compensation Fund for traders is voluntarily funded by the organization with a portion of membership dues it received from brokers.
In April 2022, more than $2.4 million in claims were filed by broker customers, but only $40,000, or just under 1.7%, was paid out. There is no transparent control of the Compensation Fund by an auditor of the lawyer and no external accountability reports.
So Financial Commission is not a regulator but rather a self-regulatory organization. Therefore, a broker’s membership is not a specific regulation but does provide some protection to traders when they have a situation they cannot resolve with their broker directly. Traders who want to determine if they are eligible to receive dispute resolution services from Financial Commission can use the Check Your Broker directory on the organization’s website.
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If you have any information about other fake regulators or scams, please let us know via our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
