'Armada Markets' Set to Leave Polish Market under a Cloud of Suspicion
In a further sign of regulatory arbitrage, an unregulated Estonian broker leaves the Polish market to "launch a new company
Armada Markets, an Estonian-based broker offering margin foreign exchange trading services, today sent a letter to all of its clients based in Poland, informing them that the company will no longer be offering services to Polish clients as of October 10th, 2014.
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Earlier this year in March, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) announced that ‘Armada Markets AS’ had been added to their list of unauthorized firms. The Polish regulator effectively banned Armada from operating in Poland and offering financial services to Polish residents.
The move was in addition to the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority (Finantsinspektsioon) publishing a public warning regarding Armada Markets in September 2012, stating that the firm is not regulated in Estonia.
Today’s letter to customers claims that Armada is “in preparation for the extension of our business … to launch a new company providing a wider range of services, temporarily suspending managing accounts for clients in Poland.” Customers have also been told to close all positions and submit withdrawal forms by close of business on October 10th, 2014.
According to ‘Comparic’, an online Polish news vendor, it is widely rumoured that Armada has been operating illegally in their dealings with Polish customers. Comparic also reports that the KNF notified the Polish public prosecutor of their “suspicions that Armada was committing crimes” and that “Armada customers may be called as witnesses to aid the prosecutor’s case.”
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On Armada’s website, the company’s CFO, Illimar Mattus, is quoted as saying: “There are over 1,000 brokers in the world. Armada is constantly ranked among top 5 brokers when it comes to low trading costs, tight spreads, deep liquidity and execution quality. This is our way of respecting our clients.”
Whether or not the ongoing vigilance over Armada by the KNF has influenced Armada’s decision to officially exit the Polish market is unclear. Regardless of what actions the KNF takes, it seems Armada is re-branding and re-opening for business in the near future.
Update
In a written statement, the Armada Markets CEO, Ingmar Mattus said:
“Armada Markets is operating based on the spot forex and metals brokerage registrations by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Estonia. Armada Markets is not a subject of any investigation and we are not accused of anything in Estonia, Poland or elsewhere. We have never had a physical office in Poland and we stopped accepting new clients from Poland already in April 2014. Our decision to discontinue servicing existing Polish clients is due to our progress in launching a new regulated subsidiary with new and improved services. So, over the course of the coming weeks our clients will see many new positive developments coming from us.”
Why are they sending this letter only to polish customers? They are not allowed to offer financial services to any customer within the EU without regulation.
I had an account with them once until I found out that the Mattus brothers had been banner by the CFTC in the US and their company blacklisted in Estonia and now Poland. I was lucky to get my money out of this company, they seem the get in trouble with all the regulators in the world, this has got to tell people something.
@ Andy: Good question
Andy – because only Polish KNF brought them on their “warning list”. They (Armada) probably want to remove that warning before they get new license in other EU country.
Stuart – I actually have account with them and I must say it is one of the best I had…although I can compare only to “big” market makers(I will not give names). Fast execution, low spreads. Never complained. I did not know about his brothers – thanks!
They are not allowed to provide fin services to EU retail customers without an eu passport period. They are probably flying under the radar of the regulators.
@Stuart – That’s fair enough. You’re getting a good bang for your buck with Armada. But Top 5? In the world? “CFO Illimar Mattus is quoted as saying: “There are over 1000 brokers in the world. Armada is constantly ranked among top 5 brokers when it comes to low trading costs, tight spreads, deep liquidity and execution quality. FXCM, Oanda, Gain, IB, Saxo for starters and that’s just the obvious ones that far exceed this European interloper. If they want to talk about “deep liquidity” I’m wondering whether if this Armada crew has mistaken their puddle for the high seas.… Read more »
Its funny they keep saying that they are in the process of creating new regulated subsidiaries all over the world. Last one i read about was a new entity for Asia and this was 10 months ago. The Mattus brothers are full of hot air, I dont trust these guys at all they have had too many regulatory problems and dont look to be cleaning up thier act.
Its strange that the CEO claims they ended services in April 2014 and yet they are halting managed accounts on October 10th.
By the way, managed accounts are notoriously difficult to obtain regulatory approval for. Regulatory approval that Armada doesn’t have anyway. They were labelled unauthorised in Poland in March it seems but they winding up only in October with the CEO claiming April. Someone get the calendar out.
Armada’s own story is a patchwork of inconsistencies. One of those where an answer to any question leads to two more questions.
Oh and I’ve never ever heard of any broker being regulated by a “Ministry of Economic Affairs” before.
I have been trading with Armada since a year and never had a problem with them. Fast same day withdrawals. Cost of trading? with saxobank i paid $20 for 10k eurusd deal. With aramada i paid $0.5. Offering same services at 1% of the cost that other brokers charge, no wonder why regulators are getting “complaints” to shut them down
Been a client for over 2 years now with over 3000 trades, average execution time of less than 300 milliseconds and over 20 deposits/withdrawals processed the same day. This all with industry lowest commissions. Gregoriah, not sure why you post fake information here but they have never had any managed accounts. They stopped accepting new Polish clients in April this year, and all the remaining Polish client accounts will be closed by October 10. They are saying that they are “registered” by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, not “regulated” as you claim. Brokers like Forex.ee, Tallinnex and others are operating… Read more »
@Gary I was referring to the following: Today’s letter to customers claims that Armada is “in preparation for the extension of our business … to launch a new company providing a wider range of services, temporarily suspending managing accounts for clients in Poland.” Customers have also been told to close all positions and submit withdrawal forms by close of business on October 10th, 2014. I understood that to mean managing accounts on clients behalf. I’ve got nothing against Armada, I’m just going on what is reported. thanks for letting me know about Forex.ee, Tallinnex. I wasn’t aware that’s how it… Read more »
Isn’t it funny how the Armada trolls come to their rescue every time someone picks holes in their story. Nobody can hide the fact that the Mattus brothers have been on the wrong side of the regulators in 4 countries now, they keep saying they are going to clean up thier act but instead they keep getting into trouble.
Regulation is here to protect traders, its cowboys like these guys that have no respect for the law that gives forex a bad name.
Gosh, it’s very odd for me to see so many people are in to this dirty pool. I’m in FX for more than 10 years and I’ve seen many similar examples of similar dirty licensing games. One broker even once “confidentially” said to me over the phone that my main broker has issues with licence and their business is soon going to be closed very soon. Just with the purpose to get most of my deposits into their hands. An article is ordered by some competitor, it’s so obvious that I even don’t see a need to explain. I’m with… Read more »
There is no oversight. Apparently there is a similar loophole in Finland, where firms can offer retail FX without a license(for example FinFX). That doesn’t mean tho they are allowed to offer financial services thoughout the EU – for that you need a passport and passporting can only done through the official regulator of the home country. But it doesn’t get enforced – its legal in the home country so the regulator does nothing there, and foreign regulators have no jurisdiction – so they can only issue warnings (like the polish did). Its really up to the EU to put… Read more »
I doubt that this article was ordered by compeditors and I don’t believe their banning in Poland was set up by people lodging false complaints either. The facts don’t lie, this company has been in trouble too many times to be considered legitimate. There are many legitimate and well regulated companies that have better spreads and faster execution than Armada markets.
Real traders don’t join threads like this to post defensive comments relating to spreads, execution etc. Real traders look at the facts which to me and most people point to serious problems at this brokerage.