The United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning against ‘AXI Corp Limited’, a clone firm of the registered forex and CFD broker Axi and its sister company, One Financial Markets. The financial markets regulator flagged the clone on Thursday in a warning published on its website.
According to the FCA, while the clone firm is located in Leadenhall Street, London, the two authorized firms are based at 1 Finsbury Market, London. However, the regulator did not disclose the website of the clone firm, only provided its address, telephone and email addresses.
Australian broker, AxiCorp, acquired One Financial Markets in August 2018, and the retail broker is now the trading name of Axi Financial Services (UK) Limited. On the other hand, Axi is run by AxiCorp Limited.
“Almost all firms and individuals carrying out financial services activities in the UK have to be authorised or registered by us. This firm is not authorized or registered by us but has been targeting people in the UK, claiming to be an authorized firm,” the FCA said in the statement.
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FCA Clamps Down on Clones of Authorized Brokers
In 2022, the FCA flagged down a number of clone websites and firms impersonating registered brokers under its supervision. In July, the financial markets supervisor raised the alarm on a clone website impersonating Zenfinix, a London-based FX and CFD broker. The regulator noted that the clone firm was aiming to scam UK investors.
Three months earlier, the financial markets watchdog revealed that Crypto-Trade was a clone of the authorized firm Rational Foreign Exchange Limited. It noted that the unauthorized entity ran the website www.crypto-trade365.com when the legal firm operated as rationalfx.com.
Between January and March 2022, the FCA flagged down three other clone entities. According to the regulator, AZOpitons, which claims that it offers crypto-related services to both retail and institutional investors, is a clone of Octopus Investments Limited. Furthermore, the supervisor flagged clones of XTB and IC Markets in March and January 2022, respectively.
