Exclusive: EU Institutions in Catch 22 Regarding IronFX Case

It’s been more than three years since the first signs of trouble emerged for clients of one particular retail brokerage in Cyprus - IronFX. The company’s clients have been all over the news and social media in China, Europe and Latin America, demanding justice and a repayment of their withdrawals. In the meantime the Audit Office of the Republic of Cyprus has released its annual report, showing a massive client money hole. The company disputed the findings.

The case escalated into an investigation by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC CySEC The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) is a financial regulatory authority of Cyprus. CySEC is one of the key watchdog authorities for brokerages in Europe, whose financial regulations and operations comply with the European MiFID financial harmonization law.Founded in 2001, CySEC is instrumental in providing licensing and registration for forex brokers and previously binary options providers.CySEC is responsible for a variety of different functions, which includes the supervision and control of the Cyprus Stock Exchange as well as transactions executed in the Stock Exchange, its listed companies, brokers and brokerage firms.Furthermore, the regulator also supervises and monitors Licensed Investment Services Companies, Collective Investment funds, investment consultants. and mutual fund management companies.CySEC’s Role in Combatting Market AbuseOne of CySEC’s most important functions is the granting of operation licenses to investment firms, including investment consultants, brokerage firms and brokers. This includes provisions for Cyprus Investment Firms (CIF), who provide and perform investment services and activities either within Cyprus or abroad on a professional basis on certain financial instruments.Finally, CySEC oversees the imposition of administrative sanctions and disciplinary penalties to brokers, brokerage firms, and investment consultants, among others. The group has been a key force in policing the forex and binary options space, which has included several legal actions and curb market abuse. Since 2016, CySEC has sought to take a more aggressive stance against illicit behavior, while also strengthening its handling of investor complaints against entities. CySEC is currently chaired by Demetra Kalogerou, who has held the role since 2011.The CySEC is administered by a seven-member Board, which consist of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, each of whom provide their services on a full and exclusive employment basis, and five additional non-executive members.All individuals on CySEC’s Board are appointed by the Council of Ministers following a proposal of the Minister of Finance. Their service reflects a five-year term. The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) is a financial regulatory authority of Cyprus. CySEC is one of the key watchdog authorities for brokerages in Europe, whose financial regulations and operations comply with the European MiFID financial harmonization law.Founded in 2001, CySEC is instrumental in providing licensing and registration for forex brokers and previously binary options providers.CySEC is responsible for a variety of different functions, which includes the supervision and control of the Cyprus Stock Exchange as well as transactions executed in the Stock Exchange, its listed companies, brokers and brokerage firms.Furthermore, the regulator also supervises and monitors Licensed Investment Services Companies, Collective Investment funds, investment consultants. and mutual fund management companies.CySEC’s Role in Combatting Market AbuseOne of CySEC’s most important functions is the granting of operation licenses to investment firms, including investment consultants, brokerage firms and brokers. This includes provisions for Cyprus Investment Firms (CIF), who provide and perform investment services and activities either within Cyprus or abroad on a professional basis on certain financial instruments.Finally, CySEC oversees the imposition of administrative sanctions and disciplinary penalties to brokers, brokerage firms, and investment consultants, among others. The group has been a key force in policing the forex and binary options space, which has included several legal actions and curb market abuse. Since 2016, CySEC has sought to take a more aggressive stance against illicit behavior, while also strengthening its handling of investor complaints against entities. CySEC is currently chaired by Demetra Kalogerou, who has held the role since 2011.The CySEC is administered by a seven-member Board, which consist of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, each of whom provide their services on a full and exclusive employment basis, and five additional non-executive members.All individuals on CySEC’s Board are appointed by the Council of Ministers following a proposal of the Minister of Finance. Their service reflects a five-year term. Read this Term) that settled with IronFX and allowed the firm to continue operating. In the meantime clients from China and Europe have had to resort to legal proceedings to demand repayment of their funds.

[gptAdvertisement]

After the settlement, CySEC advised clients to direct their complaints to the Cyprus Financial Ombudsman Service, an institution which is yet to conclude its investigation of the brokerage.

As of today, a number of clients continue to contact Finance Magnates with their hopes dashed by European bureaucracy. The wealthier customers have resorted to pursuing legal cases against the brokerage using qualified lawyers from Cyprus to assist them in the recovery of funds.

Some online entities claim that they have successfully recovered money for clients, but there is no definitive way to prove whether these claims are legitimate. Others have resulted in failure and admissions of using multiple accounts to abuse the firm’s once generous bonus system.

Commenting to Finance Magnates on the matter, an IronFX spokesperson stated: “There is only one pending Court case in the Limassol District Court for a claim of approximately $600,000 by a single group of 165 Chinese Clients who have yet to present themselves at Court. 72 of these have already dropped the case and we strongly believe the remaining lack merit."

"The Company has a further 7 lawyer claims for purported pending withdrawals, none of which has gone to a Court trial yet. These claims represent a tiny fraction of the 1.1m accounts the Company has opened since its inception. The Company has a number of independent legal and expert opinions that strongly support its position and the validity of its T&Cs and therefore strongly believe that none of these fictitious claims will proceed to trial. No clients have managed to win compensation for their purported withdrawals by virtue of a successful Court order or winning any Court case,” the company's spokesperson concluded.

European Commission and Ombudsman Dragged into IronFX Case

The inconclusiveness of actions undertaken, and the lack of action on the part of CySEC and the Cyprus Financial Ombudsman Service, has resulted in a case brought to the European Ombudsman by a Hungarian client of IronFX regarding repayment of his funds. Additional complaints have been brought to the European Commission.

To the detriment of clients that have been looking to obtain assistance from European Authorities, all cases have been deemed appropriately addressed and the relevant institutions have been cleared of any wrongdoing.

ESMA states that it has adequately addressed the case, highlighting its recent actions targeting retail brokerages across the European Union. The supranational regulator has mandated tougher rules on Leverage Leverage In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders need to rely on leverage to make financial trading viable. Generally, the higher the fluctuation of an instrument, the larger the potential leverage offered by brokers. The market which offers the most leverage is undoubtedly the foreign exchange market, since currency fluctuations are relatively tiny. Of course, traders can select their account leverage, which usually varies from 1:50 to 1:200 on most forex brokers, although many brokers now offer up to 1:500 leverage, meaning for every 1 unit of currency deposited by the trader, they can control up to 500 units of that same currency. For example, if a trader was to deposit $1000 into a forex broker offering 500:1 leverage, it would mean the trader could control up to five hundred times their initial outlay, i.e. half a million dollars. Likewise, if an investor using a 1:200 leveraged account, was trading with $2000, it means they would be actually controlling $400,000, i.e. borrowing an additional $398,000 from the broker. Assuming this investment rises to $402,000 and the trader closes their trade, it means they would have achieved a 100% ROI by pocketing $2000. With leverage, the potential for profit is clear to see. Likewise, it also gives rise to the possibility of losing a much greater amount of their capital, because, had the value of the asset turned against the trader, they could have lost their entire investment.FX Regulators Clamp Down on Leverage Offered by BrokersBack in multiple regulators including the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) took material measures to protect retail clients trading rolling spot forex and contracts for difference (CFDs). The measures followed after years of discussion and the result of a study which showed the vast majority of retail brokerage clients were losing money. The regulations stipulated a leverage cap of 1:50 with newer clients being limited to 1:25 leverage. In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders need to rely on leverage to make financial trading viable. Generally, the higher the fluctuation of an instrument, the larger the potential leverage offered by brokers. The market which offers the most leverage is undoubtedly the foreign exchange market, since currency fluctuations are relatively tiny. Of course, traders can select their account leverage, which usually varies from 1:50 to 1:200 on most forex brokers, although many brokers now offer up to 1:500 leverage, meaning for every 1 unit of currency deposited by the trader, they can control up to 500 units of that same currency. For example, if a trader was to deposit $1000 into a forex broker offering 500:1 leverage, it would mean the trader could control up to five hundred times their initial outlay, i.e. half a million dollars. Likewise, if an investor using a 1:200 leveraged account, was trading with $2000, it means they would be actually controlling $400,000, i.e. borrowing an additional $398,000 from the broker. Assuming this investment rises to $402,000 and the trader closes their trade, it means they would have achieved a 100% ROI by pocketing $2000. With leverage, the potential for profit is clear to see. Likewise, it also gives rise to the possibility of losing a much greater amount of their capital, because, had the value of the asset turned against the trader, they could have lost their entire investment.FX Regulators Clamp Down on Leverage Offered by BrokersBack in multiple regulators including the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) took material measures to protect retail clients trading rolling spot forex and contracts for difference (CFDs). The measures followed after years of discussion and the result of a study which showed the vast majority of retail brokerage clients were losing money. The regulations stipulated a leverage cap of 1:50 with newer clients being limited to 1:25 leverage. Read this Term and prohibited bonus practices by all companies in the industry.

As a result of the actions of few brokers, all brokers have been labelled as aggressively targeting clients. Industry insiders know that this is not the case, but the chief European bureaucrats don’t seem to be paying a lot of attention to this.

ESMA took 5 months to reply to the Hungarian client's complaint, and no action was taken to alleviate the client’s concerns. This has been criticized by the Ombudsman service.

The case also highlights that CySEC announced a settlement worth €335,000 against the company. The disputes between IronFX and its clients are still ongoing however.

High Leverage Advertising

Before the publication of this article, a CySEC spokesperson was contacted by Finance Magnates. We asked why IronFX was still allowed to openly advertise on its website that it is offering up to 1:500 leverage.

No official comment has been received on the matter, however at present the website of the broker has coincidentally substituted the highlighted high leverage position. IronFX is now instead highlighting its dedication to 24/5 customer support.

This is the same customer support system which has been contacted over years by customers whose complaints have not been addressed. Finance Magnates has spoken to numerous customers of IronFX that assert that all of their withdrawal requests have been directed to compliance@ironfx.com. After emails were sent to the address, no appropriate reply was received by several clients.

European Bureaucracy is Not Helping End Clients

The main issue with the legal cases brought to European institutions against the brokerage continues to be that the institutions, whether Cypriot or EU (CySEC/the Cyprus Financial Ombudsman Service/ESMA/the European Ombudsman), have provided zero assistance to the clients.

Instead, ESMA has mandated that national regulators introduce additional measures for client protection. And yet the main question for the industry remains - what will Cypriot authorities do to actually enforce the existing regulations?

Numerous clients of the EU-regulated broker are at present unable to access their funds. In the meantime, CySEC issued a communique last year mandating that all withdrawals be completed within the same working day or on the working day following receipt of the request.

After more than two years, the situation has still not been resolved, and the firm constructed a presentation for an IPO that never materialized.