The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has withdrawn the operating license of F1Markets Ltd as the company decided to “expressly renounce it.” Though announced on Thursday, the regulatory board finalized the decision on 5 December 2022.

CySEC License Renounced

With the Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) license, F1Markets operated multiple forex and contracts for differences (CFDs) retail broker brands: one of the brands being Investous. It has four registered domains with the Cypriot regulator, and the other two, 24CM and EuroPrime, are not accessible anymore.

According to a notice on the broker’s website, the company shuttered its services last May. It closed all the open positions on 19 May 2022 and asked traders to withdraw funds.

“We regret to inform you that our Company has decided to renounce its authorization and therefore, please be aware that as of 20th of June 2022, F1Markets Ltd, operating under the domains www.investous.com/eu and www.f1markets.com will no longer be able to offer its investments and ancillary services to clients,” the notice reads.

Additionally, the F1Markets mentions Straton Markets as one of its brands. However, that website is not registered with CySEC and is not accessible anymore.

A Controversial Broker

F1Markets received its CySEC license in 2015, which allowed it to operate within the European Economic Area (EEA). However, its services were flagged multiple times for compliance lapses, and the company has faced enforcement actions.

The Financial Conduct Authority caught F1Markets and a few other brokers promoting their products in the United Kingdom with fake celebrity endorsements on social media. The complaints from the British watchdog resulted in a temporary suspension of the broker’s license by CySEC, which was returned within a month.

Last August, F1Markets settled with the Cypriot regulator, paying €150,000, for multiple possible violations of local regulations that came with a regulatory assessment of the company’s compliance efforts for the fulfillment of the conditions of its partial suspension and other corrective measures taken between June 2019 and July 2020.

On top of that, CySEC has strengthened its enforcement oversight after the European financial market supervisor raised concerns. Furthermore, it withdrew the license of FF Simple and Smart Trades Investment Services recently, which operated TradoCenter and Toro Invest brokerage brands.

Meanwhile, several other well-known brokers, including Swissquote and Equiti, have also gained licenses from CySEC to strengthen their European operations.