FINMA, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, has updated its blacklist of companies that are illegally operating financial services targeting Swiss residents.
The newly-listed company is a Multi-Asset broker and asset manager named Suisse Trade Center Ltd. The Swiss authority located the company address via its website https://stcforex.com/ which reveals that the firm is owned and operated by a Belize-based entity.
Although the financial watchdog didn’t provide specific details, the inclusion of Suisse Trade means it is not officially registered in Switzerland and was thus not authorized to offer its trading services to Swiss traders. Suisse Trade also claimed to have offices in Cyprus, but after some research on our side, it became clear that the firm isn’t regulated by the CySEC as a CIF firm.
In the ‘About Us’ section, the company refers to global offices. However, it didn’t claim any specific regulatory status in these jurisdictions.
Earlier this year, Finance Magnates reported that FINMA shut down a cryptocurrency racket as part of its latest efforts to tackle digital currency fraud. Per its latest edict, FINMA’s target was a fake cryptocurrency provider. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority is currently pursuing as many as twelve other cases amidst an uptick of fraud in the country.
According to a FINMA statement regarding the action, this activity is similar to the deposit-taking business of a bank and is illegal unless the company in question holds the relevant financial market license.
