The International Financial Services Commission of Belize (IFSC) issued yesterday a warning against another entity purporting to be registered in the country. The Belize watchdog warned that a company calling itself ‘TRADE24 Investments Ltd.’ is not licensed by IFSC or any other competent authority in the country to conduct any trading business, according to an official IFSC press release.
The new update was issued by IFSC Director General Neri J. Matus, who said that all persons concerned should exercise extreme caution and take note, as the aforementioned entity is fraudulently claiming to hold a trading licence in financial and commodity-based derivative instruments and other securities licences issued by the IFSC., and that it is regulated by the organization.
A brief review of the broker website reveals that TRADE24 Investments Ltd lists its address at Europaallee 41,CH-8021 Zurich, Switzerland, and in the 'About Us' section it makes reference to other global offices including in the USA, London, France, Brazil, among many others.
It’s not clear how many clients may be affected by the firm which has already been cited yesterday for forgery over its regulatory status. But according to its website: “More than 140,000 of traders have chosen Trade24 as their broker on Forex market and every day new traders are joining us and among these brokers the team of Trade24 will be glad to see you!”
Finance Magnates reporters spoke with the support team via the chat box available on the broker’s website and they promised a telephone call shortly from a company representative to comment on the IFSC’s warning, however at the time of publication no response has been received.
Fake IFSC license
Typically, alleged scam entities in scenarios like these may deny the accusations and make up excuses, perhaps that it was an administrative error, but in this case the company ,besides listing on its website the regulatory status, as shown below, also provides a link to a copy of an IFSC license which could be seen below.
Belize is known as an offshore destination for brokers that want to meet fewer and softer criteria and to comply with less strict rules and requirements than if they registered in other jurisdictions. However, the IFSC has recently made a number of key changes to its fee requirements, with the IFSC application fee soaring to $1000, doubling from just $500. The regulator also increased its annual license fee to $25,000 from $5,000, and the capital requirement for forex brokers to $500,000.
