The Canadian provincial financial regulator from British Columbia has joined ASIC in advising against doing business with a binary options company that is based in Bulgaria. The brand Option Financial Markets (options.fm) has been flagged by the British Columbia Securities Commission as a firm that is not allowed to operate in the country.
This isn’t the first warning against Options Financial Markets, which is a binary options brokerage that claims to be based in Hong Kong. According to the Australian Securities Investments Commission (ASIC) the company operates via a Bulgarian bank account with Unicredit Bulbank.
Back in April the Australian financial watchdog advised Australian residents that the company was making unsolicited calls and was providing investment and financial advice, without holding an Australian Financial Services (AFS) license.
Online binary options trading has been actively targeting Canadian residents for years with the provincial regulators in the country being amongst the most active regulatory bodies to advise the public about cold calls from binary options brokerages.
According to the announcement made by BCSC, one British Columbia (BC) resident was solicited by a representative of Option Financial Markets, and was able to open a trading account with Option Financial Markets.
With options being identified as securities under securities legislation in Canada, the operation of the parent company of Option Financial Markets is not under the supervision of Canadian provincial regulators.
The BCSC is advising Canadian residents to deal with caution with companies that are not registered to provide their services in Canada.
