Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Cyprus’ financial watchdog the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) suspended the license of the local investment firm Trademarker (Cyprus) Ltd., operating the brokers SkyFX and Capital Option.
According to the commission’s announcement, the license with number 151/11 is suspended because Trademarker has allegedly violated the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law and has not complied at all times with the conditions for its authorization, thus jeopardizing its clients’ interests and generally the smooth operation of the capital market.
The violations found by the CySEC include failure to conduct regular internal reviews of policies and procedures preventing conflicts of interests of its employees, managers and agents from adversely affecting the interests of its clients. Another alleged violation is failure to ensure that the persons who effectively direct the business of the company are of sufficiently good repute and sufficiently experienced as to ensure the sound and prudent management. The CySEC also found that Trademarker has failed to inform it of the identity of its shareholders and the shares they hold, as required by law.
In its announcement CySEC points out that Trademarker has 15 days from the date of the commission’s decision, which was taken on February 12, 2016, to take actions in order to comply with the aforementioned provisions. Until it has done so, the company must not provide and/or perform any investment services and activities. The broker must also, if its clients wish, close all open positions and return all their funds and profits earned.
This is not the first time CySEC deals with SkyFX. In 2015 it has fined it for outsourcing services to third parties and soliciting its clients on the phone to open trading accounts. The violations had occurred under the previous owner of the brokerage, back in 2013. Also in 2015, Cyprus’ regulator fined Trademarker for failure to ensure the appropriateness of its shareholders.
SkyFX offers trading in currencies (44 currency pairs), commodities, indices and stocks. The required minimum deposit for a classic account is $500 and the offered leverage is 1:300 on forex, 1:100 on spot metals and cash indices and 1:50 on spot oil.
Capital Option offers trading in binary options of currencies, commodities, stocks and indices. The minimum required deposit is $250. A check on its website showed that it its trading activities are currently suspended.
