The financial market supervisor of Cyprus withdrew the Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) authorization of Finteractive Ltd, which operates under the trading brand FXVC.
Announced on Thursday, the decision was taken by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC ) on 4 July 2022. The decision was made as the company chose to renounce its Cypriot license.
The broker, which passported its Cypriot license to operate in the European Economic Area (EEA), decided to renounce the authorization in January and has since stopped taking clients under the license. In addition, it ceased offering financial services to existing clients in Europe last February.
“Clients who have eligible funds in their account, were notified in order to be refunded the amount of their eligible funds or requested to provide information necessary to proceed with the refund,” a notice on the FXVC website states.
However, the brokerage appears to be still offering services internationally with a license obtained from the regulator in Seychelles, which in other words termed an offshore license. Its offerings include trading services with contracts for differences (CFDs) of forex , stocks, cryptocurrencies, indices and commodities.
Too Much Non-Compliance?
Neither the broker nor the Cypriot regulator explicitly mentioned the reasons behind the decision toward the renouncement of the license. However, FXVC has often faced regulatory backlash.
Earlier in May, the brokerage operator settled with CySEC paying €100,000 for possible regulatory violations. Again, the regulator only mentioned there were possible lapses around 'organizational requirements' without specifying anything. Moreover, the UK’s FCA stopped the services of the broker last year for using 'a variety of inappropriate techniques to promote its services'.
Meanwhile, the Cypriot supervisor is doubling down on its efforts to tighten the often loose operational practices of CFD brokers in its jurisdiction. Recently, it issued a warning, ordering these brokers to 'improve their practices', or else they might face enforcement actions.
