The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, CySEC , announced today, January 16th, it has decided to impose minor administrative fines on two companies related to the binary options industry, back in December of 2013.
Calpiaco Ltd., was fined €5,000 for breaching Article 4 of the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law - operating an investment service in binary option contracts (binary options broker) without a license. The company operated under the name of optionsbravo during 2012-2013.
The Cypriot regulator cited among the mitigating factors for its lenient verdict, that the firm shut down its website and informed the commision that it plans to apply in the future for a CIF license, as was needed in the first place. An additional fine of €3,000 was set for Calpiaco Ltd. for not submitting information requested by CySEC with respect to the identity of the final beneficial owner of the Company.
ChargeXP Investments Limited, a payment service provider, was charged €10,000 for infringement of Article 41 of the SEC Act of 2009- providing false and/or misleading statements and concealment and/or failing to report required information to the Commission, during February and March of 2013. In the announcement, CySEC stated it takes such a violation with all due seriousness, but some might say that a fine of less than 2.9% out of the possible limit set by the law (€350,000) fails to reflect that.
ChargeXP is a payment processor widely-used by binary options brokers, the company boasts on its website that it "is the payment processor of choice for brands of Spotoption Ltd." The only mitigating factor cited, is the fact that the company finally produced the information the Commission requested in July 2013.
