CySEC Warns CFDs Brokers to ‘Improve Practices’ or Face Action

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC CySEC The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) is a financial regulatory authority of Cyprus. CySEC is one of the key watchdog authorities for brokerages in Europe, whose financial regulations and operations comply with the European MiFID financial harmonization law.Founded in 2001, CySEC is instrumental in providing licensing and registration for forex brokers and previously binary options providers.CySEC is responsible for a variety of different functions, which includes the supervision The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) is a financial regulatory authority of Cyprus. CySEC is one of the key watchdog authorities for brokerages in Europe, whose financial regulations and operations comply with the European MiFID financial harmonization law.Founded in 2001, CySEC is instrumental in providing licensing and registration for forex brokers and previously binary options providers.CySEC is responsible for a variety of different functions, which includes the supervision Read this Term) issued a warning to Cyprus Investments Firms (CIFs) on Thursday, particularly contracts for differences (CFDs) issuers, asking them to take immediate actions to “improve their practices.”

The regulator specified that the brokers with loose compliance Compliance In finance, banking, investing, and insurance compliance refers to following the rules or orders set down by the government regulatory authority, either as providing a service or processing a transaction. Compliance concerning finance would also be a state of being following established guidelines or specifications. This designation can also encompass efforts to ensure that organizations are abiding by both industry regulations and government legislation. Understanding ComplianceCompliance is a In finance, banking, investing, and insurance compliance refers to following the rules or orders set down by the government regulatory authority, either as providing a service or processing a transaction. Compliance concerning finance would also be a state of being following established guidelines or specifications. This designation can also encompass efforts to ensure that organizations are abiding by both industry regulations and government legislation. Understanding ComplianceCompliance is a Read this Term practices will face enforcement actions with “significantly higher” fines. Additionally, the regulator can even suspend or revoke the operational licenses of the companies.

Cyprus is home to several financial services companies, usually brokers and other trading-industry companies. The firms usually passport their Cyprus license to operate in the European Economic Area.

Though the Mediterranean island successfully attracted financial services companies with its friendly regulations, multiple European regulators, including ESMA, pointed out compliance lapses on the part of Cyprus-regulated companies.

Additional Controls

The latest warning came when the Cypriot regulator is introducing additional controls for cross-border services and is imposing new rules to strengthen customer protection. The watchdog even emphasized regulatory compliance and investor protection in its supervisory objective for 2022 and 2023.

Under the new rules, companies will be compelled to appoint an internal auditor and submit a report to the regulator after receiving 20 or more complaints.

“To achieve CySEC’s mission to exercise effective supervision, ensure investors’ protection and the healthy development of the capital market, CySEC is adopting changes to its supervisory processes when it comes to monitoring cross-border activities,” said Dr George Theocharides, CySEC’s Chairman.

“This will ensure that poor practices and possible violations of the law are adequately identified, assessed, addressed and prioritized when needed.”

Additionally, the regulator is imposing more controls to check the organizational structure of new applicants to ensure their ability to carry out and monitor cross-border activities. It is even focusing on the advertising practices of the applications to ensure that no aggressive marketing behaviour is conducted or misleading information is sent to investors.

“Those who seek to violate the law have no place in Cyprus. CySEC aims for a stronger, safer, more responsible market both in Cyprus and across Europe,” Dr Theocharides added.

Recently, the Cypriot supervisor warned investors against the so-called 'finfluencers' and the practices of 'gamification' in trading. It has launched an awareness campaign against both but did not put forth any rules to curb them.