Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Bulgaria’s Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) issued on Wednesday a warning notice against 18 unauthorized entities, including Russia-based forex broker InstaForex and Mauritius-based HotForex.
The list mainly includes Bulgarian-registered companies that provide brokerage services for forex, binary options, and other trading instruments. The regulator noted that the companies are not licensed and are not authorized to operate in Bulgaria.
Under the Bulgarian regulations, a company is not allowed to provide financial services in the country, unless it has been licensed by the local relevant authorities or the regulators in any other EU member state.
A list with all entities added to the alert list of the FSC follows:
- Finansov Konsult, previously Teletrade Sofia (Bulgaria)
- Brokerage – Hristo Ivanov (Bulgaria)
- 24 Trade, previously Exxus Markets (Bulgaria)
- DEALERWEB
- Investors, previously Aston Markets (Bulgaria)
- TraderXP
- Teletrade Bulgaria (Bulgaria)
- InstaForex (Russia)
- HotForex (Mauritius)
- CityCapital (Bulgaria)
- Bulgarian Trading Group (Bulgaria)
- KFM Capital Investments (Bulgaria)
- Insta Sofia (Bulgaria)
- Islandbay Services, trading as Broker Capital
- Brokers Star (Bulgaria)
- Belfor Capital (Bulgaria)
- Efeksglori (Bulgaria)
- B.M. Investments (Bulgaria)
HotForex is the unified brand name of HF Markets Group, which operates under its subsidiaries HF Markets, licensed by the Mauritius financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), and HF Markets (Europe), which holds a license by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySec). CySEC regulation allows access to the markets of all other EU countries.
InstaForex, part of Insta Forex Group, is an electronic communication network (ECN) forex broker registered in Russia. It offers access to more than 100 forex currencies and 200 contracts for difference (CFDs) trading instruments, including futures, gold and stocks. The broker operates in more than 80 countries.
The InstaForex group also consists of InstaTrade, InstaMedia, Insta News Service, and MT5.com, which is an internet data portal of the group companies.
The FSC regularly issues warnings against unauthorized entities and maintains a public Electronic Register of all regulated companies.
Bulgarian investors can claim their money back under the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF) in case of default of their investment intermediary. The ICF guarantees payments of compensation of up to €20,000 only to clients of licensed Bulgarian-registered entities and their foreign branches in case they are unable to pay their liabilities or have been delicensed. Investors who engage with unauthorized entities put their money at risk.
As Bulgaria’s financial regulatory body, the FSC is entitled to issue licenses, supervise and regulated the capital and insurance markets in the country. Its board consists of a chairperson, three deputy chairpersons and one member.
Source: FSC
Pierce
Bulgaria is not the first and only country to issue warning about InstaForex. It’s good to see that the country’s watchdog is paying close attention to what it happening in the financial markets under their jurisdiction. All those trading in Bulgaria should befriend the FSC and follow their advice and recommendations.
Mark Jr.
Good job Bulgaria FSC for their advice. They are not only warned those company who operate under Bulgaria jurisdiction, but also this scammer who operate outside Bulgaria.