Italian financial watchdog Commissione Nazionale per la Societá e la Borsa (CONSOB) just released a new blacklist of several binary options brokers, stating that the firms are not authorized to provide investment services or activities in Italy.
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The binary options brokers Markets Capital Ltd, operating as www.paydayoption.com, and Hansa Equity SpA, working through https://www.hansa-equity.com/, were added to the Italian regulator’s warning list and CONSOB recommended that Italian investors avoid trading with these companies.
Some of these brokers have been listed as trading scams by other European financial regulators. This is why CONSOB advises Italian investors to check its registers before they deposit any funds with a broker, especially if the related broker used aggressive Marketing techniques.
The Italian watchdog explained that some blacklisted brands not only lack the appropriate licenses or authorization to operate in Italy, but also believe that these platforms are pure trading scams that offer fraudulent High Yield Investment Programs (HYIP).
This was CONSOB’s second such action in less than one week which reflects the increased attention paid by the Italian watchdog to unregulated binary options providers.
However, the regulator still hasn’t followed in the footsteps of other authorities in Europe which have recently taken serious steps to curtail binary options activities and stem the flow of unregulated and non-compliant companies. Such serious steps are meant to establish an increasingly hostile environment by imposing further strict regulations, such as prohibiting all online advertising by binary and forex providers in France, and even an outright ban on the industry in some cases.
